Playing with Evil
by R.G. Waffles
Summary: Canon/ Slight AU - After one change causes Team 7's teamwork to deteriorate completely, Kakashi thinks it's about time he adjusts his training tactics. A story about overcoming disabilities, fixing friendships, and discovering relationships.
1. Serendipitous

**Multi-chaptered Disclaimer: **No, I don't own Naruto.

**Author's Note:** What's this? A new story? What? What?

Hmm . . . I'm a little late with the new story, aren't I? Excuses and explanations aside, here it is. And now, here are important things you need to know:

1) **Slightly AU** in that they're Shippuuden age, but Sasuke never had his hissy fit with Itachi or the Akatsuki.

**THIS STORY IS NOT ABOUT SASUKE. He plays a large role in the first chapter because he's the reason behind the plot. **

2) **Take it slowly.** This story is all about development.

3) **What is this story about? **This is the most important. It's about overcoming fears, strengthening and breaking friendships, and a little romance here and there. What kind of romance? Broken hearts. Little bits of passive fluff. Squints of yaoi. Never-to-be relationships. Team 7 is broken, and now it needs to get back together. This is going to be their rough journey.

I guarantee real emotions. Real fears. Real life.

**Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke not perfect. They will make mistakes. They will seem out of character. And you will get angry, and I will not understand why, because I warned you.**

Let me shut up now. Enjoy the story, and review only if you feel moved to.

**Chapter One**  
…**:::Serendipitous:::…**

**Read the author's note. It should answer any burning questions.**

Almost there . . .

Almost _there . . .!_

"Ha!"

Naruto held the bells triumphantly in his hands, raising them to the sky for Sai and Sakura to see as he pranced around his smirking sensei.

"I told you I'd be the first to get them!" he said, laughing. "I –"

_Poof!_

The bells – and the smirking sensei – disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto blinked his round sapphire eyes for a moment, staring at the empty palm of his hand where the bells used to be as if they would magically reappear if he stared long enough. Sure enough, they didn't.

Oh, Kakashi was good. _Too_ good.

The infamous sensei came sauntering out from behind a tight row of trees, clapping lazily. Sai and Sakura joined their teammate in the center of the clearing on the training grounds and watched with narrowed eyes as Kakashi came to a halt a meter in front of them.

"Well, that was entertaining," the older man said with a contradicting yawn. He winked at Naruto with his only visible eye. "Better luck next time."

"If you would've waited long enough, dickless, you would've realized that it was just a clone," Sai chimed, his eyes closed from the force of his smile. The reaction he received from Naruto was almost immediate.

"Dickless?!" he yelled. "You have the _nerve_ to –"

But he stopped himself, blinking owlishly like he had done moments ago. His expression softened, his whiskered cheeks dropped, and he looked almost saddened.

"You haven't called me any weird names in a long time," he continued. "What's with the sudden return to the nicknames?" And then, as if answering himself, he said, "It's because of _him_, isn't it?"

"Nonsense." It was as if Sai had felt insulted in a blue moon moment. "I would never do anything because of that bag of scum."

"Don't you –!"

"Well."

Kakashi clapped one hand down roughly on Naruto's shoulder and the other reached into his back pocket for his book with the infamous orange cover. He prided himself in well-timed interruptions.

"That's enough team training for today. You're dismissed."

Naruto frowned. "But I wanted to train longer."

It was Kakashi's turn to frown, but his lips quickly quirked themselves upwards in favor of a fake smile. "Naruto, I'm technically not your sensei anymore. I have other duties, and I'm sure Sai and Sakura have theirs as well."

"Yeah, whatever," the blond tried to brush off the comment, seemingly unfazed. He walked to the base of a nearby tree to pick up the small bag he had left. Sakura followed him to retrieve her bag as well.

"You're not going to visit _him_ now, are you?" she asked, her emerald eyes darting to the bag of grocery store couture in Naruto's hand.

Naruto caught both the hesitance and the slight anger lacing her voice. He smiled at her. "Of course I'm going to visit him," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the universe. "He hasn't had company for almost three years. I'm making it up to him."

"Naruto, he almost –!"

"Bye, Sakura."

He was sick of hearing the same lecture he'd been given for the past two months.

His destination had almost been routinely designed. After a rare training session with Kakashi, Sai, and Sakura, he would make his way _there_ as if it was completely normal. He would always take something with him, like a bar of chocolate or a package of ramen noodles, feeling awkward upon showing up empty-handed despite the fact that _he_ didn't care.

Up to that isolated, one-roomed apartment he went, knocking on the front door eagerly. He announced his entrance rather pointlessly and moved to turn the knob of the door so he could enter. A gloved hand stopped him unexpectedly. He turned his eyes to find a porcelain mask staring down at him.

"No visitors," a gruff voice said from behind the mask. "Hokage's orders."

"What do you mean 'no visitors'? I've been coming here for almost two months! Granny Tsunade knows I come here all the time. The ANBU always let me in." He paused, scrutinizing the mask for a few moments. "What's your mask supposed to be? A cat? You're a new guard, aren't you?"

The ANBU let go of Naruto's arm and crossed his own over his broad chest. "It's a tiger," he said, sounding rather offended. "And I've been given orders not to let anyone –"

"Relax, Tiger."

Another ANBU appeared at Naruto's side suddenly, placing a hand on his shoulder. Naruto recognized the beaked mask and relaxed, shifting weight to one leg as he waited for an explanation.

"Uzumaki's one of the few people allowed to visit him."

"Fine," said Tiger. Naruto imagined a sneering face behind that mask. "Continue."

Tiger disappeared, soon followed by the falcon-masked woman. Naruto finally turned the doorknob without further interruptions and peered into the darkness of the room. The dying sunset spilled through the bare windows, creating a glossy glow on the naked wooden floors.

"Hey," Naruto called, closing the door behind him and maneuvering through the miniature living room. "I'm here."

The so-called living room was devoid of any furniture. No couches, no chairs, no tables, and nothing decorating the walls. The kitchen, connected to the living room and equally as small, had nothing but a refrigerator, an oven with a stovetop, and cupboards Naruto knew were empty save for three dishes, two glass cups, and a bag of uncooked rice. He sent the area a fleeting glance, checking for any signs of life, before venturing into the only other room the miniature apartment had, besides the bathroom.

Naruto knocked twice, not even bothering to wait for a reply before swinging the door open and turning on the lights. His eyes swept over the futon mat, over the bare desk, to the figure huddled in the furthest corner of the room and he frowned.

"You're always in that position when I come in," he commented offhandedly as he neared the figure. "Get up, Sasuke. I just got back from training and I don't feel like sitting on the floor today."

Uchiha Sasuke had his back wedged into the corner the connecting walls created, his knees drawn to his chest, his arms wrapped around them to pull them closer, and his forehead resting on his knees. Every time Naruto came to visit, he was always in that position, and every time Naruto left, he was always in that position.

Naruto sighed and dragged the futon mat over so that he could lie down in front of the boy. He lay on his stomach, head propped up by both of his arms, and tossed the bag he had come with at the Uchiha's feet.

"I brought you another cup of ramen. Kakashi-sensei told me he stopped by and you didn't seem to be eating anything. You got thinner." He chuckled humorlessly. "Well, thinner than before, anyway."

He was used to the silence that followed. Sasuke had barely said anything since he returned. He hadn't _really_ been the one to return . . .

----------

. . . _He was back._

That bastard was back, crimson eyes intact, chakra pulsing around his entire body, barely alive. Found by a girl and her father. Returned by force. Confronted by the Elders beneath their beady eyes and accusing glances.

"Orochimaru?"

"Dead."

"And Itachi?"

". . . Still alive."

Their patience wore thin beneath their wrinkled skin. What to do, what to do? What to do with this missing-nin, this sacred survivor of the Uchiha clan, this traitor, this killer of Orochimaru?

"Will you try to escape again?"

Silence.

"Will you try to escape again?" they asked once more, their patience a sliver away from disappearing.

"I'm thinking."

They gave him plenty of time to think – in prison. Locked him up, threw away the key. Watched him suffer in his own puddle of blood and sweat and piss. They knew they needed him. _He_ knew they needed him; they wanted him alive. He had gained all the information on Orochimaru, on the Akatsuki's whereabouts, hideouts, plans, experiments; all the information they had been trying to gain for years, he had gotten in months.

In and out of consciousness he went, never having been healed from the deathbed state they found him in. He stayed alone for two days in that prison, chakra-suppressing shackles around his ankles and wrists, ANBU guards at the gate of his cell, watching him behind the rotting bars with their hidden eyes behind their porcelain masks.

_You could've been one of us._

Sasuke knew that.

But he didn't think about his status. He didn't think about Orochimaru, or about the prison he was in, or about the Elders. All he could think about, and all he didn't want to think about, was his team.

Could he still call it _his_ team?

Was he going to return to Konoha? Was leaving really worth coming back?

Where was he going with his life?

What the _hell_ had he gotten himself into?

They took him out of his cell on the third day. Forced him out of unconsciousness with a rough shake and a slap across the face, because that was how anyone treated a traitor. A traitor wasn't one of their kinds. Wasn't one of them.

_You could've been one of us._

Interrogation time.

Why were you found almost dead in the middle of the forest?

He didn't know.

_Lies!_

Where was Orochimaru's hideout?

He didn't know.

_Lies!_

What did Orochimaru do to you?

. . . He didn't know.

_LIES!_

"Uchiha," Ibiki's gruff voice spat out disgustedly, as if the name was a sin. Written right next to Beelzebub in the Holy Bible. "If you cooperate with the interrogation, the Elders have agreed to lessen the intensity of your punishment. You will be allowed to stay in Konoha. Your death sentence will be lifted. Would you like that?"

_Yes, yes, yes!_

"I'm thinking."

_SLAP!_

"You're done thinking." A gloved hand grabbed his chin roughly. Sasuke could feel the calluses beneath the leather, digging into his bruised flesh. "Yes or no?"

Silence.

His thinned face was squeezed tighter. He was thrust backwards, falling to the cold cement without so much as a cry, the chair he was tied to digging painfully into his prominent shoulder blades. Ibiki straddled him, his gloved hand at his pale throat, thumb digging into his windpipe.

"Yes or no," he whispered ominously, and it wasn't a question anymore.

He was so ready to leave at that very moment. To give it all up. He didn't come back so he could get tortured and interrogated and treated that way! But there was something stopping him. And he didn't want to admit it.

_Anything to stop the pain_, Sasuke told himself. _Anything to keep me alive so I can finish what I need to do._

"Yes!" he screamed. "Yes, yes, _yes!"_

The interrogation ended there for that day and he was back in that cell, back to where he started, alone and cold and hurt and hungry, because he never got any further than that. Always alone, always cold, always hurt, always hungry.

They healed a little bit of him that night for the next interrogation. He desperately tried to stay awake as medic-nins tended to the worst of his injuries, desperately searching for any sign of pink hair, any glimpse of green, green eyes.

None.

He fell into darkness with nothing but fluorescent lighting in his memories.

At the next interrogation, Ibiki asked him for a story. Sasuke gave him one. He asked if the information would be kept confidential. Ibiki told him that between him, the Hokage, and the Elders, no one else would know. So Sasuke told him everything. And no one but Ibiki, the Hokage, and the Elders heard.

No one.

The next interrogation, they asked him for information. He gave it to them. He gave them everything his brain could remember, every sickening detail, every disturbing experiment. He could even give them the exact times a gut-wrenching fit of laughter reverberated off of the stone walls underground; he had started to, too. One-forty-seven p.m., two-thirty-three p.m., four-oh-five p.m. . . . A slap to the face was the only thing that stopped him from continuing.

Punishment time.

The Elders had their fun then. They had been waiting for the punishment. And so Sasuke sat in the Hokage's office in a chair, hands bound, face hung so that his too-long bangs fell over his face in oily wisps. The vaguely familiar woman sitting in the Hokage's chair stared at him with honeyed eyes, brows together, hands clasped, thinking.

Thinking.

Thinking.

The Elders sat at the side like hungry vultures, waiting for their injured prey to be bitten and wounded and left to bleed for death before they could swoop down and feast. A man with wild white hair was there, too, in the corner; Sasuke vaguely remembered him, but couldn't place a name.

And Kakashi.

Kakashi was there, too, and that was what hurt the most.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade broke the heavy silence at last with the sinned name. "S-ranked missing-nin returning to Konoha. You realize the penalty for any missing-nin is usually death, correct?"

He nodded his head ever-so-slightly, unable to meet those accusing eyes.

"However, you have managed to kill another S-ranked missing-nin, and have provided valuable information on both said missing-nin and the mercenary group known as Akatsuki. You have not been brought back willingly, but you have willingly decided to stay. Is this correct?"

Nod, nod.

"At your age –"

"Tsunade, age has nothing to do with it!" Koharu, the only female of the Elders, snapped. "Sixteen is nothing! At thirteen, Uchiha Itachi slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan!"

Sasuke finally raised his head to glare at her with all the anger he could muster, inwardly thanking her for the dear reminder, and then slicing off her head. In his mind, of course. His hands itched to do so much more.

"I understand that," Tsunade ground out between clenched teeth. "Uchiha Sasuke, I have decided that your punishment will be . . ."

Three weeks later, there is Uchiha Sasuke, sitting alone in a one-roomed apartment, the scars of his punishment – physical and mental – still fresh on his body as he cradled his knees to his chest and rested his head on them for hours and hours without moving the slightest inch. House arrest. They gave him that miniscule apartment saying that would be his new home for two years. ANBU would be watching him like the hawks on their porcelain masks for a year.

Stripped of his Genin status, he was now nothing but a lowly academy ninja. No missions for three months. A small trickle of money would be provided monthly by the Hokage. Community service. Errands.

Return to Team 7 would be contemplated, but not immediately granted.

Kakashi stopped by several times to speak to him. Sasuke expected a casual talk with an undertone of a lecture, but Kakashi was dead serious. He crouched in front of the Uchiha and very seriously, he said, "I'm disappointed in you." Sasuke didn't think he listened to the rest of the conversation. Those four words were all that swam in his mind for the rest of the nights.

Of course, Naruto had gotten word of Sasuke's return some way or another, and during his previous two weeks of punishment, he had made it his mission to have a word with the Uchiha. He got his words in, all right. His words, his punches, his tears, his emotions. He had been livid at the Uchiha and stayed that way for several days. But when Sasuke's punishment had gone into play, he stayed up all night next to the punished Uchiha and spoke of everything, asked him everything, tried to heal him when he could. Sasuke never said anything. He just listened, because he had nothing to say.

----------

And so there sat Uchiha Sasuke, knees to his chest, with Naruto in front of him telling him about how training went. After a while, he fell into silence, and they stayed like that for however long it was. Sasuke wasn't counting. He didn't even have a clock to count with.

"You know," Naruto whispered after the wave of silence died down, "I really felt the tension today when I was training."

Sasuke said nothing. As usual. But Naruto knew he was listening. As usual.

"I told you Sai shows it openly, right? But Sakura's different. She seems kind of uncomfortable. I'm guessing she didn't visit you, right?"

Not expecting an answer, Naruto was somewhat shocked when Sasuke suddenly said, "She's not as annoying as she was back then, is she?"

Naruto frowned. "I never thought she was annoying."

The Uchiha finally stood up straighter, running one handcuffed hand through his oily hair, vaguely noting that he needed to take a shower. "Kakashi came this morning."

"I know," said Naruto with a smile. "He was extra late to training. What did he say?"

"Nothing."

Naruto left it at that. Sasuke had told him about Kakashi's random visits. The man would stand there for ridiculous lengths of time in silence. He crouched in front of the Uchiha from time to time, leaving the ghost of a touch on his cheeks or his hand, but never said anything since the first day he saw him.

"I'm thinking about asking him to take you on a mission with us."

"Don't." Sasuke's dull eyes bore into Naruto's suddenly, narrowing. "It won't do any good. Let them pretend I don't exist."

Naruto sat up in enthusiasm, pointing a finger at Sasuke. "They know you exist! They just need to warm up to you again, you know? Being away for almost three years and then suddenly coming back takes a lot on close friends –"

Sasuke smiled humorlessly, shaking his head in a pitying manner. Naruto thought he looked almost manic.

"You're an idiot," he whispered. "You know I didn't willingly come back. They're doing the right thing, ignoring me. No one is going to warm up to me, Naruto. I'm a traitor of Konoha. You're the only one stupid enough to still be talking to me."

"Fine," Naruto said, not offended in the least, but his smile was gone. "Then I must be the stupidest of them all, because I believe we can forgive and forget –"

He was cut off when Sasuke's cuffed hands suddenly grabbed the front of his shirt. The grasp didn't hold much power; the cuffs drained his chakra to a bare minimum. All Sasuke could do was pull Naruto towards him, their faces close.

"Forget that I tried to _kill_ you?!"

As if they worked with the flick of a switch, four ANBU guards were in the miniscule bedroom, three of them detaining Sasuke and one of them prying Naruto from his weak grip.

"No, wait –!" Naruto tried to reason as he was dragged away from the Uchiha.

"It is no longer safe for you to visit Uchiha Sasuke," the ANBU – the same female that had allowed him entry – said. "Do not come again. You will no longer be allowed access."

"No, you don't understand. He wasn't trying to do anything . . ."

As he was pulled from the room, he heard Sasuke give a strangled yell – of agony? of anger? – before silence reigned upon the apartment. The ANBU pushed Naruto out the door, slammed it in his face, and the night stilled.

Well, that went rather well.

Naruto thought it was time to speak to Kakashi.

Speaking to Kakashi was easier done than said.

"Kakashi-sensei, I think our teamwork has been really awkward lately."

"I know."

"And I think it's because Sasuke's here."

"I know."

". . ."

". . ."

"And I think it's a good idea to have Sasuke go on a mission with us."

"I know."

_What the hell?!_

"And I want a unicorn for my next birthday."

Kakashi walked past him, tapping him on the nose. "Now that," he said, wagging a finger, "I _didn't_ know."

And then he was gone.

Kakashi made a quick stop at the Uchiha's apartment before he went on with the plans he had in mind. He was mildly surprised when an ANBU stopped him before he could enter.

"Uchiha Sasuke is no longer allowed visitors," she said.

Kakashi leaned back into his carefree slouch and, with lidded eyes, commented casually, "What did he do, kill a puppy?"

"He assaulted Uzumaki Naruto on his recent visit."

Kakashi did not seem at all surprised at the news. Naruto had seemed perfectly fine when he had spoken to him, save for a shirt that seemed more crinkled than usual. The ANBU guarding Sasuke had a tendency to be out to get the Uchiha since his return.

"That's okay," Kakashi continued in his even tone. "I think I'm a little more experienced than Naruto." He brushed past the ANBU and turned the knob on the door. "And besides, I'm just here for a minute visit. A few words and I'll be gone. You can watch, too."

_Because it's not like you haven't been recording his every twitch, anyway._

The ANBU said nothing to his entrance and so he carried on into the darkness; the sun had long since died. Kakashi made his way through the apartment to Sasuke's room. The boy was in a familiar position in the corner, head down.

"Well, well," the silver-haired man began as he stood in front of the Uchiha, staring down at him.

Sasuke immediately looked up. Unlike Naruto, Kakashi did not make it a habit to show up unexpectedly and rant for long hours on end, and so Sasuke made sure that he listened more intently. He didn't know why, either. His stabbing conscience, however, told him it was to make up for those four words he couldn't get out of his mind from his former teacher's first visit.

_I'm disappointed in you._

Kakashi noticed, with bitter amusement, the blood at the corner of Sasuke's lip, and the growing bruise on his cheek. The ANBU had already had their fun, just like the Elders.

"It seems you're to blame for my team's training going down the drain lately," he said, watching Sasuke flinch at the deliberate wording he used. _My team._

"Funny," Sasuke said with a sullen snort. "I thought I didn't exist to them."

"It's the fact that they _know_ you exist that is driving their poor focus."

Kakashi crouched in front of his former student, his visible eye moving from Sasuke's long sleeves that stretched over his arms, to the bruise along his jaw, to the unwashed strands of hair over a porcelain complexion, and finally stopped to stare directly into seemingly endless oblivion.

"I'm going to take you on a mission with us."

Sasuke grew angry almost instantaneously.

"Who the hell do you think you're kidding?" he barked. "I don't belong on a team anymore. It's like I never graduated from the Academy. And even if I ever manage to get my rank raised, all I'll ever be used for is solo life-or-death missions. I can't be on a team anymore, Kakashi. You need trust to be able to work with a team."

Kakashi smiled to himself a little.

"You haven't changed," he said, feeling a little more than accomplished at the annoyed twitch he received from Sasuke.

Silence ensued.

"I'm still pretty disappointed in you."

"I know."

"But I'm willing to give you a chance to redeem yourself."

Sasuke stared at him for a while, wondering if Kakashi could read his mind. _I don't want to redeem myself, damn it_, he thought intensely, but Kakashi merely blinked.

"If you won't take the mission to redeem yourself, then take the mission as an excuse to get out of this apartment. You haven't left this place for two months. I think that's pretty unhealthy."

Silence.

"And you'll have those chakra-draining handcuffs taken off of you."

Silence.

Kakashi stood up, brushing imaginary dust off of his knees, and sighed. "I want to know what you're thinking sometimes, Sasuke," he said quietly. Then, louder, he said, "Well, I'm expecting you tomorrow for training at noon. It's up to you to come."

And with that, he left.

Sasuke wished he had more glass cups in the kitchen. He had the sudden urge to throw one.

"No. Absolutely not, Hatake. No. Never."

Talking to Tsunade was a lot easier with alcohol. Kakashi, however, was rather short of alcohol and was therefore forced to take the hard way: convincing her manually.

He had arrived at her office early the next morning (Tsunade almost had a heart attack; Kakashi, early?!), crouching on her windowsill in a mellow style only Hatake Kakashi could achieve, his portable porn in hand. At first, he had casually asked her how she was doing, to which she'd remarked that he was up to something. And so, pocketing the portable porn, he got down to business.

"I want to send Sasuke on a mission."

She would've thought he was joking if the porn was still in his hand. But it wasn't, and so she laughed humorlessly and flat-out denied. So he asked again, and received the former answer.

"I have that boy down on punishment, and the Elders have their eye out on him, too. It's one month too early to send him out on a mission, Hatake. His lack of rank indicates that he needs to return to the Academy, so even if he achieves Genin level, he will still be doing D-rank missions."

Kakashi casually pointed out that the first mission he had sent the original Team 7 on was an A-rank mission. Then he waved his hand a little and pointed out that Sasuke had killed Orochimaru – a Sannin. Tsunade did not take kindly to these casual pointing outs.

And so, when she denied his request for a third time, he finally explained what he planned to do, why he planned to do it, and the catch behind the mission.

Tsunade said she'd think about it.

Kakashi took it as an okay.

He thanked Tsunade and left. Tsunade sighed. Although she was the Hokage, and although she was a powerful Sannin, she was also a mother-figure with a soft spot that Sasuke had punched. It didn't help that moments later, Naruto burst into her office and demanded she give Sasuke a mission with all of Team 7.

She kicked him out with a smirk on her face.

Sasuke was there the next day.

On time.

Kakashi, of course, was not.

And so, this left things rather awkward for the students waiting for him to show up. Sasuke had been the first at the familiar bridge, leaning weakly over the railings to stare at his reflection in the water down below. He wore loose clothing: a long-sleeved, plain navy shirt with the Uchiha symbol proudly on the back, and something resembling sweat pants, looking rather awkward in sandals. He knew the ANBU were not too far behind, either; the guards had asked for Tsunade's permission before letting Sasuke out of the apartment, and they had been following him ever since.

He had almost collapsed when the chakra-draining handcuffs had been removed. The gradual surge of power overwhelmed him; he had adapted to a minor amount of chakra for two months, as well as to no sleep. Even standing there, looking over the bridge, he felt a bit fatigued. He would be damned if he showed the slightest bit of weakness at training, however.

When it was Naruto who showed up after him, he felt slightly relieved. He could relax around Naruto, simply because he knew the blond had no hard feelings.

He still found that hard to believe.

"I didn't think you'd come," the blond said. He smiled. "But I'm glad you did."

_I didn't think I'd come, either._ A gust of wind carried with it a whistling _That's what she said._

Sasuke honestly did not know why he came. Perhaps it was the idea of training – getting stronger. Perhaps it was the idea that the cuffs would be removed. Or perhaps, perhaps it was the idea that he would get the chance to redeem himself –

_No!_

_ There's no way in hell I'll be able to redeem myself._

Speaking of hell:

"You look like hell."

Naruto was always the best conversationalist. Sasuke focused on his reflection in the water again, staring at the hollows of his cheeks. He had lost an immense amount of weight from the two weeks of torture he endured. He was sure that the only reason the clothes on him were loose was because he had gotten smaller.

Naruto watched his expressions with a slight frown on his face. Sasuke had seemed different ever since he came back. He had grown, definitely, and his appearance had adjusted well to his growth, but that wasn't what Naruto thought had changed. There was something else. Something less confident in the way Sasuke stood. Something less arrogant in the way he stared.

Something less Sasuke-ish.

He joined Sasuke, looking over the rail in silence, both of them unknowingly thinking of the same thing: the others' reactions.

Sai was the first to saunter over the bridge. He didn't stop and stare at Sasuke; something told Naruto that the strange boy had gotten word of the unexpected guest. Instead, Sai walked to Sasuke's other side and leaned over the railing. When Sasuke turned to stare at him in confusion, Sai gave the largest, fakest smile he could muster.

"Traitor," he spat, smile still in place.

The old Sasuke, Naruto thought, would've done one of two things: he would've gotten angry at the words of a complete stranger, asking him what the hell his problem was, or he would've cracked that arrogant smile of his and snapped his own insult right back.

But this Sasuke – this _new_ Sasuke? – did neither. He simply stayed silent and looked back down into the water. Naruto wondered if he agreed with what Sai said.

He missed the old Sasuke.

Sakura was the obvious next person to arrive. From where she came, she couldn't see Sasuke between Naruto and Sai, all three boys leaning over the rail and looking at the water. And so she hopped up happily.

"Hey," she said, still walking towards them. "What are you boys looking at – oh . . ."

She paused mid-step, her words fading and her eyes growing round as she stared at the figure that did not move to acknowledge her presence. Naruto, however, turned to take in her reaction.

"Sakura," he started, but he did not know how to continue.

It was the second time Sakura had seen Sasuke since his return, her first being in the very early days when he had been on his punishment. She had had no hand in healing him; Tsunade had not asked, despite her excellent expertise in the medical field, nor had Sakura asked to see him in those two months. It was something she could not bring herself to do. Something she knew was inevitable, but she wanted to keep away as long as possible.

Something that was happening right now.

Naruto watched Sasuke turn around. He wondered what was going on in that mind of his, wondered what Sasuke was thinking at that very second, because his face certainly betrayed no emotion. Sasuke simply leaned backwards against the rail and crossed one ankle over the other. He didn't even say anything, and Naruto suddenly wanted to hit him so hard it hurt.

So Sakura didn't say anything, either.

She didn't know what she was feeling. She wanted to pump all her chakra into one fist and knock Sasuke's head clean off of his neck. She wanted to break down in tears then and there, but knew she would never allow anyone to see her weaknesses anymore. She didn't know whether she still harbored that love for Sasuke she had years ago, but she could feel her heart pounding at the situation nonetheless.

"See?" Sai interrupted bluntly, unafraid to speak. "Even she agrees. Traitor."

Sakura did not say anything in protest.

And neither did Naruto.

Sasuke turned around to look at the water over the railing again and suddenly wished Sakura would push him over and he would drown. Maybe if he moved to slap Naruto or something an ANBU would take him down and bring him back into his apartment.

Because Sasuke truly, honestly had no idea what he was doing there.

A surge of anger bubbled in Sakura suddenly. Suddenly, all of the pain she had endured, all of the pain Naruto was forced to endure because of Sasuke, came washing over her, pushing her over the edge. Her eyebrows furrowed, and Naruto saw her raise her hand as if she was about to slap Sasuke, her other hand itching to turn him around so it would hurt more. And that hand stayed suspended in the air for what seemed like hours.

Kakashi, previously having prided himself in well-timed interruptions, never felt prouder. He sauntered down the bridge, his mind completely alert yet his idle expression speaking otherwise. Feeling unacknowledged when he finally reached the students, he hummed a little ditty to make himself known.

"I'm glad we're all getting along," he said, digging his hands into his pockets.

Sakura lowered her hand and turned to stare at him, and Kakashi wasn't sure if her expression showed anger or sorrow, or something in between. Naruto wondered if her hand would have made impact with Sasuke's face if Kakashi hadn't shown up.

Sakura wondered the same thing.

"Kakashi-sensei," she whispered, eyes oddly blank, "what is the meaning of this?"

Kakashi pretended to look confused. "The meaning of what?" he asked. "We're training like we always do. I've got a particularly cooperation-oriented test to do today, by the way. Let's all head off –"

"Kakashi-sensei."

He was surprised inwardly at the dripping venom from Sakura's normally sweet voice. A sigh escaped his own lips. "Sakura, let's just get training, okay? You're a ninja. You have to learn to adapt." He turned without another glance at them. "Now, let's strengthen some teamwork."

"All right," Sai responded positively with a smile, pushing himself away from the railing and following Kakashi. "But I'm not cooperating with the traitor," he chirped in a singsong voice.

Again, no one said anything. Not even Sasuke, who pushed himself from the railing in an equal manner and followed suit. Not even Naruto, who didn't agree in the slightest with the word, who wanted no more than to turn back a clock and right the wrong. Not even Sakura, who found herself agreeing with Sai, and found herself feeling terribly guilty for doing so.

The test Kakashi set them to take, of course, hadn't worked out so well.

Well, it _had_ for Sakura, Naruto, and Sai. Sasuke, however, found himself suddenly alone amidst the trees, watching Sakura, Naruto, and Sai as a _team_ complete the test without him. It was only when he had walked into the clearing after them did the three realize their mistake (although Sai's had been on purpose). Sakura stifled a gasp at her own inconsiderate attitude and took several minutes trying to convince herself that it was perfectly fine to show Sasuke inconsiderateness, because that was how Sasuke treated everyone else; she ignored the part of her that told her that was a lie.

Naruto cursed himself openly for the mistake.

"You were masking your chakra," he tried to defend himself by accusing the Uchiha. "We're not trying to hide from each other, you know. I couldn't figure out where you were."

Sasuke did not shake his head, did not nod, did not hum in agreement. He stood still, a little off to the side from everyone else, and stared through oily bangs that reached below his chin. He had half a mind to tell Naruto that masking his chakra was something unintentional that he did; it was something reflexive that he was taught to do, and instinct told him to do it the second Kakashi had given the okay to begin the test. But he wasn't in the mood for an argument.

He wasn't in the mood for anything.

Naruto frowned. He _really_ missed the old Sasuke.

Kakashi watched the ongoing with disappointment. He had expected the tension to lighten just the slightest. Perhaps Sakura would fall into routine and the old Team 7 air would resurface, but she seemed adamant to punish Sasuke in her own way. Naruto was too caught up trying to please everyone and get everyone to work together to be too effective. And Sai was a lost cause.

Things didn't get better, either.

The tension stayed with the other tests they carried out that day, following the Uchiha like a fraying string from his shirt sleeve, tickling him with an annoying itch from time to time. Kakashi took note of this. It would never work out between them, he thought. The tension was just too . . . awkward. Too strange. Too bizarre to have a traitor back. Someone they would have died for two years ago, they would now not cast a second glance. Even Naruto's attempts at bridging Sasuke to the rest of the team were failing horribly.

"You're dismissed," he said after the fourth failed test, staring over his sweating students with his arms crossed over his chest. "Training again next week, same day of the week, same time."

He went back to Tsunade that night.

"Still thinking?" he asked her from his position on the windowsill.

"My only problem is having Sasuke out of Konoha's gates," she admitted. "_We_ found _him._ He didn't come back willingly, Kakashi. If that man never found him, he would've gotten back up and dragged himself to wherever without a second thought towards this town! What if he takes it as his chance to leave?"

"You don't think he'd have left already?"

Kakashi picked himself up from the windowsill and walked slowly to the front of Tsunade's desk. He placed his gloved hands upon the surface of the wood, leaning forwards onto his arms slightly so that what was exposed of his arms rippled with veins.

"He's been here for two months," he said. "He agreed to stay. If he wanted to leave, don't you think he'd have left already?"

"I've given orders for the ANBU to do anything to him should he try to escape. That includes putting him in a near-death state. The only reason Sasuke hasn't tried to escape is because he wants to stay alive so he can fulfill whatever twisted desires he has. Even with two weeks of torture and two months of house arrest, his skills haven't deteriorated in the least."

Kakashi had to agree. Sasuke, despite more stoic than usual, showed no signs of weakening skills. But he shook his head anyway.

"That's probably not the only reason Sasuke hasn't tried to escape."

Naruto did not expect to find himself avoiding Sasuke in the week between their next training session.

It wasn't that hard, really. Sasuke never came out of his apartment. All Naruto had to do was not go near it and he would do just fine. He, like Sakura, could suddenly not bring himself to see the Uchiha. He hoped Sasuke didn't mind, because right now, Naruto needed a break from chaos.

Sasuke minded.

But he didn't tell anyone that.

After all, since Naruto didn't come, there was no one to tell.

Kakashi tried the teamwork routine at the next training session. That one had gone particularly horrible. It went like this:

". . . Hey, Sasuke," Naruto had started.

". . ."

"I'm sorry I didn't show up last week."

". . ."

"I had some things to sort out."

". . ."

_At least it wasn't a lie._

Naruto, in an attempt to please Sasuke (and to secretly make up for the week he hadn't visited), had teamed up with him, but Sakura and Sai had a hard time completing the mission when Sasuke was around, and Sasuke had somehow ended up in a large hole in the ground. He hadn't even bothered to get himself out of it. He just collapsed on the spot, spread-eagled on his back, wondering why it wasn't raining as he looked up at the sky from where he hadn't moved for hours.

Kakashi visited Tsunade again.

"I've made a decision," she said. "And I will allow you a mission."

Kakashi, just to annoy her, danced in glee. She promptly kicked him out of her office.

Now in the quiet of her own solitude, she took to looking for the perfect mission – anything was better than doing paperwork, and now she had an excuse not to. Picking the mission, however, was harder than she had originally thought it was. It couldn't be a D- or C-rank mission. Kakashi's specifications called for something far more difficult than that. And besides, the members of Team 7, both old and new, were no longer children. They were easily of ANBU skill (and one, secretly, already was).

She laid the folders out for A- and S-rank missions.

A part of her told her she was crazy. She shut that part out with a bottle of sake and a few shots. Or a lot.

She had thought it impossible to originally allow Sasuke out on a mission. It had taken hours when the boy had first arrived to convince the Elders to lessen their original punishment, and the end result had not been too pretty, either. The Elders would have surely disallowed the mission . . . if she had confided in them. But a part of her pride was roused: what good was being Hokage if she couldn't make decisions on her own? If the Elders told her what to do and what not to do? And so she told herself that she was getting Sasuke on a mission if they liked it or not.

The first S-rank mission available luckily required a team and was not a solo mission. She held the folder in one hand and tapped her free fingers to her lips. No, she couldn't send them on that mission. It was too heavily centered on Sound. The temptations would be far too great, and she was not completely sure of Sasuke's intentions. She knew the team's skill was enough to go above and beyond an S-rank mission, but she was skeptical about the idea of starting so large. The A-rank missions required solo artists. All three of them.

And so Tsunade told herself that the next mission she acquired that wasn't a solo mission, regardless of whether or not it was A- or S-ranked, would be their mission. And so she waited.

And so it came, four days later.

Unfortunately, Sai was out of town on a mission of his own and could only join them when his mission was completed. The date was unsure. That would create a problem.

"Take it or leave it, Hatake."

Kakashi took it.

"You have a mission that starts tomorrow morning."

Kakashi stood, staring down at the Uchiha in the corner of the apartment (knees drawn, head down). Sasuke stared up at him suddenly, eyeing him with uncertainty.

"Details?" he asked.

"An A-ranked retrieval and escort mission in the Land of Grass. I'll give you more details tomorrow. Get packed for a month-long mission. And take a shower while you're at it."

"Why?"

Kakashi left without answering the question.

He found Naruto wandering about the town alone, his hands behind his head as he leaned into them. Kakashi casually fell into step with him, and Naruto did not even turn to his side to acknowledge his sensei. He simply smiled and whispered a greeting without moving.

"Contemplating something?"

"The meaning of life," Naruto replied, only half-joking.

"Don't think too hard. You don't want to hurt yourself."

"Oi, oi, oi!"

Kakashi smiled. At least someone was still normal.

"We're going on a mission starting tomorrow morning," he said, and then waited for the explosion. He felt himself get suddenly lifted into the air by a _very_ excited Naruto. The blond had his hands wrapped tightly around the man's midriff and was lifting his feet slightly off of the ground in what seemed to be a Super Hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he chanted before releasing his sensei. "I'm going to go pack right now!"

"Do you even know what you're packing for?" Kakashi called to the orange-and-black streak running into the distance.

"Who cares?!" was the distant reply.

"A month!" Kakashi tried to get in, but he doubted Naruto heard him. Leave it to Naruto to get too excited. He smiled beneath his mask nonetheless as he went back into his saunter as if nothing had happened. It would definitely be an interesting mission.

Sakura was next. Kakashi found her bending before an apple stand in the market, her eyes as green as the fruit she inspected in her hand. He casually bent next to her, picked up an apple of his liking, and paid the vendor. Sakura watched him from the corner of her eye, waiting for him to pull down his mask to take a bite, but he did not. He simply pointlessly wiped the apple on his vest and pocketed it.

"We're going on a mission," he told her as she bent down to pick up another apple.

"We as in you, Naruto, Sai, and I?"

She knew he knew she was avoiding the inevitable.

"Sai, unfortunately, will be away on a mission of his own and will be joining us later. But that's okay. Sasuke will be there to complete the four-man cell."

Sakura pursed her lips. "Why are you doing this, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked in a weary-laced voice as she paid for her apples.

"He's back whether you like it or not, Sakura. I understand your reasons for avoiding him, but I doubt he's going to die soon. You can't avoid him forever." Kakashi followed after her, his hands digging into his pockets. "Things have to be fixed."

"He's a traitor."

"He's your teammate."

"He _was_ my teammate." She turned on her sensei, her eyes set with determination and anger. "Not anymore."

"You know, I can_not_ believe this is coming from you, Sakura."

Kakashi pulled her to the side, and Sakura was surprised to see anger in his visible eye. The grip on her arm was too tight for her comfort.

"You're acting very hypocritical right now. You _wanted_ him back. Naruto was doing everything he could to make sure he would bring back Sasuke for you. And now that he's back, you act like you never wanted him in the first place. What happened to that promise you made Naruto take? You made him risk his life for you."

Sakura said nothing, but her eyes were filled with equal anger. Kakashi could not treat her like a child anymore. She was sixteen and no longer technically beneath his reigns.

"When do we begin the mission?" she asked evenly.

"Tomorrow morning."

"For how long?"

"A month minimum."

"I'm assuming details will be given tomorrow."

"You've assumed correctly."

"Goodnight, Kakashi-sensei."

She walked away stiffly. Kakashi could do nothing to stop her. He only hoped Naruto could pick up the broken pieces that trailed behind her and mend her again.

Mission day.

Kakashi did not come late that day. He arrived with Tsunade at the gates of Konoha to find his team already there, waiting with their bags at their sides, and an awkward tension blanketing over them. Naruto had a foreign look in his eyes – a lost, sad gaze as he stared between Sakura, who sat by the gate with her head in her arms, and Sasuke, who stood silently off to the side, finally looking like he had taken a decent shower.

When Kakashi and Tsunade made themselves known, the teens turned their full attention to their superiors. Sakura bowed to Tsunade slightly. Naruto greeted her with a loud address. Sasuke stood silent.

Tsunade put her hands to her hips. "Kakashi will give you the details to your mission as soon as I leave," she said. "I came here to tell you that this is a _very_ important mission. ANBU level, perhaps, but I trust you runts as a team. Sai will join you in more or less a week, so expect him."

She turned to Sasuke now. The Uchiha eyed her idly, his face emotionless and his lips wordless, but she knew he was listening. "Think of this mission as a test," she said seriously. "For your loyalty. I expect a full mission report from Kakashi, and if there is even so much a single negative word on you, I will rethink my punishment. You will not be pursued by ANBU. I am putting full responsibility not only on Kakashi, but on you as well. You've had a second chance, Uchiha. Don't screw it up."

A dramatic pause ensued. Sasuke wanted nothing more than to bite back with a sarcastic comment, but he kept silent. Furious. How dare she think she could test him?

"Good luck on your mission, brats. Make Konoha proud."

"I make Konoha proud by being a part of it!" Naruto said loudly, pointing to himself with a grin. He stole a glance to Sakura, looking for the slightest hint of a smile, a chuckle, anything.

Nothing.

Naruto stopped smiling.

Kakashi turned to his students. "I want you to stand in a line," he said. "And listen very closely."

They did as they were told, Naruto in between the silent teammates. His eyes were lidded in a hidden sorrow. Kakashi stood in front of them, crossing his arms.

"This is an important retrieval mission. The Feudal Lord of the Land of Grass has been kidnapped, and since it is a small village, they have no ninja. We are to infiltrate the enemy base, rescue the Feudal Lord, return him to his village, and then escort him back to Konoha for a meeting with the Hokage. As you've probably already noticed, this requires a lot of time, patience, and camping out.

"However." He stared pointedly at them, meeting each of their eyes. "Teamwork has been lacking. Therefore, on the entire duration of this mission, we will be training. I've developed a new training system that will be in full effect for the entire mission. You will embrace this new training system. You will _not_ panic, understand? Do. Not. Panic."

He ignored the questioning, worried glances he was suddenly sent. Before Naruto could open his mouth to ask what he meant, he held up a hand and continued.

"You will each have a handicap and will learn how to embrace this handicap and use it to your advantage. You will learn how to overcome it. How? That's up to you to figure out. It will be frustrating. It will make you cry. Do I care? No. You, as growing ninja, will learn to overcome the handicap, use it, and continue with the mission."

"What kind of handicap?" asked Sakura, the worry in her gut growing larger. "This is an A-ranked mission, Kakashi-sensei. Shouldn't the main focus be the mission? Wouldn't we perform better without any hindrances?"

"Sakura, your performance is horrible," Kakashi deadpanned. "The teamwork of this team is disgusting. I would say the handicaps would do nothing to lower your performance rate." And before Naruto could interrupt with a question of his own, he quickly continued. "Each of you will have a different handicap. However, I'll start off with the ones that are easiest for each of you. Each week, I'll give you a new handicap. The third week we are on this mission, you will be equipped with your greatest handicap; by then, you should've learned strategies for overcoming them."

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto finally erupted. "What the heck are you talking about?"

He turned to Naruto. "Naruto. While the handicap I will give you is difficult to overcome, it is not your weakest point. You rely on stealth, and therefore, rely on your ears for the silence of your own feet and for the movement of your enemies. Seeing enemies is not a priority of yours."

Sakura came next. "Sakura, you are intelligent. You learn quickly, and strategize quickly. You are also a medic-nin who relies on her own voice to give orders and eyes to assess the situation. Hearing, while useful, is not a main priority of yours."

Lastly, Sasuke. "Sasuke, you are an Uchiha. Your Sharingan is your greatest weapon, and you therefore rely heavily on sight. Rarely do you rely on your voice; you do not goad enemies with words and threats, and therefore, speaking is not a top priority."

Sakura suddenly understood the mission handicaps.

"Kakashi-sensei, you don't mean . . .?"

Kakashi performed a quick succession of seals, his hands a blur to the naked eye. He put his hands over Naruto's eyes.

"Naruto, you will be blind."

He put his hands over Sakura's ears.

"Sakura, you will be deaf."

He put his hands over Sasuke's mouth.

"Sasuke, you will be mute."

There was a sudden blanket of tension as Naruto saw darkness, Sakura heard deafening silence, and Sasuke felt his throat constrict. Kakashi stood before them, taking in their reactions.

"Don't panic."

They panicked.

* * *

**Explanation of Title: **"Playing with Evil." The monkeys: Speak no Evil, See no Evil, Hear no Evil. Well, Kakashi's manipulating evil. He's toying with it. He's having his fun. He's Playing with Evil.


	2. Ridiculous

**Author's Note:** Information on updates:

- I update either two weeks or one week later. This is because I haven't finished the story, and I barely have time to constantly write new chapters, so I'm trying to conserve what I can.

- Why didn't I update yesterday? Fanfiction's technical difficulties.

- Why didn't I update earlier? Egypt's windy days blew down the internet tower and killed my internet.

Enjoy, guys! Thank you for the reviews!

**Chapter Two**  
…**:::Ridiculous:::…**

"No, no, no, no!"

Naruto clawed at his eyes, the sudden permanent darkness of the world boiling the terror in his stomach so that it bubbled from his mouth in panicked words.

"Kakashi-sensei, you can't – I – How could you –?"

He had no words. He was desperately trying to blink through the curtain of obsidian that didn't seem to be pulling back, desperately trying to gather the breaths that escaped him in wild pants. Someone was trying to pry his arms away from his eyes and he reacted violently, wrenching away from the hands and flailing his arms around for his attacker.

"Naruto, calm down," Kakashi tried again, pulling gently on the boy's shoulders. "Just calm down and listen."

Naruto was still heaving as he tried to stiffen beneath Kakashi's grasp. He stood still, waiting for further instructions, the terror in his stomach growing larger by the growing silence.

Kakashi turned to Sakura, who had her hands over her ears and was giving Kakashi a wary glance.

"Can you hear me?" he asked her.

She stared blankly at him.

Kakashi smiled.

"Good," he said pointlessly to her before turning to Sasuke. "You barely talk as it is. How do I know the jutsu is working?"

Sasuke stared at him.

"Try saying something," Kakashi pushed.

Stare.

"Oi, bastard!" Naruto shouted into the silence, turning his head in the direction he remembered Sasuke being (although Sasuke had moved away and was now in the opposite direction Naruto was staring at). He flailed his limbs, hoping to catch the Uchiha. Success. One of his flailing arms surprised Sasuke and whacked him across the head.

Sasuke turned to him in anger and opened his mouth to chide the blond.

But no words came out.

"Perfect," Kakashi said with a broader smile hidden beneath his mask. "This is going better than I thought it would." He stood in what he assumed was the middle of all three of his edgy students and crossed his arms over his chest. "We're going to set out for a few hours until we come across the first camp Yamato has set up for us. He's away on a solo mission, but he's been setting up several cabins for us that he'll take down on return from his mission in two months or so. We should make it just before nightfall. I'll take the time to help you a little with your handicaps, push you in the right direction, and then we'll stay there until sunrise."

Sakura stared blankly at him, squinting her eyes at his mouth. Kakashi smirked beneath his mask and rummaged in the pocket of his vest to pull out a piece of paper. He handed it to her. The exact words he had just spoken were written on that piece of paper, along with a "I won't be giving anymore instructions until we settle down, so don't worry. "

Naruto laughed out loud and said the words Sasuke had wanted to say. "You prepared notes for this mission? You really thought ahead."

Kakashi could tell Sasuke snorted silently.

"If you have no further insults on my preparations, Naruto, I'd like to continue with this mission before nightfall."

"By all means, lead the way."

Kakashi gave the signal.

They were off.

. . . Almost.

Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura jumped into the trees to begin jumping from branch to branch.

Naruto jumped into the wall.

"Oi!" he shouted after he had fallen to the ground. He had meant it jokingly, but the unnerving darkness around him forced him to fall silent. It was something he wasn't used to, and despite not wanting to admit it, it terrified him.

It was like being buried alive. The darkness that enveloped him, the constriction he felt terrified him to no end, and he could do nothing to stop it. That feeling of fear, that fear of The Unknown, was new to him; he was far too used to having everything right in front of him.

Arms were suddenly beneath his armpits and were pulling him up. He flailed violently, an automatic reaction to the unknown.

"Who are you?" he asked in a voice more panicked than he had intended.

He received a flick on his ear.

"Sasuke?"

A hand grabbed the top of his head and forced him to nod, indicating that yes, it was in fact the Uchiha. Naruto allowed himself to be picked up and turned around to stare in Sasuke's direction. He heard another pair of feet approach.

"How are you going to handle this situation, Naruto?" he heard Kakashi ask. "We've only just begun the mission. You are the only one who cannot see the branches of the trees. How do you suppose you're going to follow us?"

Naruto stayed silent for a while, thinking out a tactic. He couldn't simply run on the ground beneath them; there were still the trunks of the trees he would have to worry about, and that would make him more susceptible to being seen by the enemy. Having himself guided by holding hands with Kakashi was something he was not looking forward to; far too embarrassing, and it wasn't the point of the training.

What if he could follow Kakashi in another way?

He smiled suddenly.

"Go," he said. "I'll be a little slow at first, but I've got a way to follow you."

Kakashi was surprised at this tidbit. "Oh-hoh?" he said, his eyebrows rising. "You've come to a solution faster than I expected you to."

"I'm not letting you hold my hand, you closet pervert." Naruto turned to stick his tongue in Kakashi's direction.

"I'm over here."

The voice came from behind him.

Damn it.

"We're going again," Kakashi informed the blind blond. Naruto nodded in certainty and moved after him.

He heard footsteps on the first branch, and suddenly, he focused all his energy onto that single branch.

Naruto was not a tracking ninja like Hinata, or like Kiba, but like all ninja, he could sense chakra. Not very far apart, but he could still sense it. And in order to propel from branch to branch, Kakashi would need to gather chakra at his feet – chakra that would then cling to the branch momentarily before disappearing. All Naruto needed to do was sense the chakra on the branches and follow it.

He felt accomplished.

But he would need to act quickly, before the trace of the chakra disappeared. Since they were in mission-mode, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke would certainly be masking the chakra in their bodies and so Naruto would not be able to track them lest he lose the trace on the branches. Then he would be at a dead end.

He tested his theory, turning his blind eyes to a distant branch.

Bingo.

Three chakra traces were there. Naruto jumped from the ground and shakily landed on the branch, his foot directly above the trace of chakra. He caught his balance in time and focused onto the next few branches in search of a trace.

Bingo. Again.

Naruto smiled to himself, proud of his accomplishment, and jumped to the next branch. This was just too easy.

Sakura, ahead, was thinking about the handicaps.

She thought being mute was the simplest handicap of the three, and being blind was the hardest. Being deaf wasn't bothering her much since Kakashi was too busy leading the way to strike conversation, and Sasuke would never strike conversation, mute or not. She could hear Naruto just behind her and would wait until they settled to congratulate him on his quick thinking.

Communication with Kakashi would be hard, she thought. If she spoke normally, she was in danger of speaking too loudly since she could not hear her own voice; therefore, she was forced to speak in a whisper that she could feel and control in her throat. Kakashi's replies, however, would be extremely difficult to receive. She could always read his lips, but he always wore that damn mask. Reading his lips through the mask would be a difficult task that would take a while to master, and she only had a day at maximum to do so.

She continued to think about the communication between everyone else.

With Naruto, communication was the easiest. He could speak to her, and she could easily read his exaggerated lips. Naruto's communication with Sasuke, however, was the most limited; Sasuke could not speak to Naruto, and Naruto could not see him for any lip movement or gestures. Very difficult.

How the hell did Kakashi expect their teamwork to improve when they couldn't even communicate with each other?!

She turned to stare at Sasuke quickly, but jerked her head back to stare forward. She couldn't look at him. No. No way. Not after what he'd done.

Right?

Sasuke caught her glance and said nothing (as if he could say anything in the first place). He admitted that since coming back to Konoha, he hadn't expected Sakura to act as coldly as she did. He expected her to be all over him, telling him she loved him, telling him she hated him, she wanted to kiss him, she wanted to kill him, but no. He received nothing but a dirty glare and the silent treatment.

Way to go, Uchiha.

He tried to convince himself that it was because of Sakura's actions that she was now deaf, Naruto was now blind and far behind them, and he himself was now uncaringly mute.

Two hours and a half into the forest, Sakura broke the unbearable silence that had blanketed the team.

"Kakashi-sensei," she whispered questioningly. "Shouldn't we stop and check up on Naruto? He still hasn't caught up with us."

Kakashi waved his hand dismissively without turning around. "He'll find us eventually."

Sasuke frowned. He could tell Kakashi was concentrating on finding Naruto's chakra, and so the Uchiha decided to do so as well. The idiot had actually forgotten to mask his chakra and so Sasuke could sense him meters behind the team, his pace excruciatingly slow and unbalanced. He was about to snort when he remembered that the blond was blind and wondered how he had figured out to follow them for such a long time in the first place.

But had Naruto simply forgotten to mask his chakra, or had something else happened?

He looked towards Kakashi. The silver-haired man must've been thinking along the same lines because his pace slowed down slightly, not enough to be noticed at first. Sasuke sighed inwardly and stopped altogether. He saw Sakura eye him strangely, but there was no way she would speak to him to ask him what he was doing.

Sasuke sensed for Naruto's chakra again and found that the blond had stopped altogether. Confused, Sasuke headed in his direction; he couldn't sense another trace of chakra around the blond, and so there couldn't possibly be another enemy.

If Naruto was just resting out of laziness . . .!

He raced over the branches, meters behind, and finally found the blond hunched over. One of his tanned arms was groping for the base of the tree to support his panting figure. Sasuke stopped in front of him, trying to make his presence known by the exaggeration of his footsteps, but Naruto was too occupied to notice. So Sasuke touched his shoulder.

Wrong move.

A right hook was suddenly making its way dangerously quickly to his cheek. He propelled himself from the branch just in time, reaching out to grab onto another with his outstretched arms and swing onto it as he watched the blond blink confusedly into the distance.

"Who's there?" he asked, his arms groping air. After a while of silence, he cocked his head. "Sasuke?"

He received a pinch in reply.

Yeah, it was Sasuke.

The Uchiha was unsure of how to ask Naruto why he had stopped. He stared at the blond for a few moments, watching the drops of sweat trickle from Naruto's temple to his chin, to drop down to his shirt to be absorbed into the dark collar. Gesticulating was out of the question.

So how . . .?

He suddenly reached for the hand that wasn't bracing Naruto against the tree and turned the palm face-up. Naruto didn't even flinch at his touch. He tensed slightly, feeling the bony fingers digging into his flesh and waiting for the next move.

He felt Sasuke begin to draw on his hand with his finger.

Genius.

Sasuke was writing letters with his index finger, trying to spell out his question. When Naruto understood what he was doing, he shook his head and smiled.

"Wait, wait, wait, start from the beginning. I wasn't concentrating."

Sasuke punched him lightly on the shoulder and quickly continued. He spelled out W-H-Y D-I-D Y-O-U S-T-O-P-?, balling his fist and pressing it into Naruto's palm to act as a space between the words. Naruto smiled at the tactic nonetheless, his whiskered cheeks crinkling in delight as he found his way of communicating with the Uchiha.

"I was tracing the chakra that your feet gave off every time you jump onto a branch," the whiskered boy explained as he sat down tiredly. "But it takes a lot of energy to keep tracing chakra all the time, and I've been doing it for two hours and a half. I'm so tired. Can't we just stop?"

Sasuke shook his head and stopped himself in the act. Naruto couldn't see him. To make his point clear, he grabbed onto Naruto's wrists and tugged him.

"No," Naruto whined, tugging back. "I can't keep tracing the chakras. I need to rest up. Damn it, Sasuke, let _go!_"

He dug his heels into the bark of the tree as Sasuke attempted to drag him off of the branch, putting all his effort into escaping Sasuke's grasp.

"And I'm not going to allow you to lead me through the forest!" he added when he realized why Sasuke wasn't letting go. "That's not the point of this mission!"

Bony fingers harshly took his palm and began drawing furious letters.

Y-O-U-L-L S-L-O-W U-S D-O-W-N

"I'll catch up eventually."

Sasuke turned his eyes to the dying sun in the distance, the fading rays of light penetrating the tops of the trees and vanishing before they could hit the ground. His gaze averted to the suddenly still blond, watching the shadows creep over his face. Night was coming, and its soldiers were already out to play.

There was the loud rustle of leaves behind Sasuke and he instinctively turned his head to inspect it, moving into a defensive position, his hands out in front of him. Pink hair emerged from the shrubbery, followed by a pale face with green eyes set neatly in the middle, staring blankly at Sasuke.

Sakura.

"Who's there?" Naruto asked Sasuke, feeling around and managing to pat the Uchiha on the head. "Is it the enemy?"

"It's me," Sakura announced, her eyes focused on Naruto's lips. "The base is a short distance ahead; Kakashi-sensei and I made it and he asked me to come back to find you two."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. She said the sentence as if they'd been two idiots lost in the woods and in need of a mother. He pulled on Naruto's arm. The blond groaned in protest.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked Naruto when she saw that he didn't want to move. "Is he bothering you?"

Sasuke shot her a murderous look and let go of Naruto's hand, full intention on making up to Sakura for his lack of words. Naruto, feeling the absence of Sasuke's presence, suddenly knew what was going on. He reached out to grab Sasuke's hand in an effort to stop him.

"Wait, Sasuke, okay!" he said desperately. "You can lead me to the base! Come on. I can't wait and rest even if I'm not wasting time because all the chakra signatures are gone, so I need help."

Sasuke stood still, his eyes still on Sakura. He knew Naruto was trying to distract him, and it was working. Grabbing the blond's had roughly, he wordlessly leapt to the next branch. Naruto, caught by surprise, was not prepared and so he quickly lost balance and forced both Sasuke and him backwards, the two off them falling to the branch beneath them.

"Don't pull him so roughly!" Sakura scolded the Uchiha. "He's going to get hurt! Here, let me do it."

She landed next to them and grabbed Naruto's free hand, but Sasuke wouldn't have it. Sakura was trying to make him miserable and he wouldn't let her have it, damn it! He tugged on Naruto's hand. But Sakura tugged, too. Naruto was caught in the middle, unseeing, feeling himself being pulling in one direction by gloved hands and the other by callused hands.

"Hey!" he called out futilely. "Okay, I'll make it by myself!"

They ignored him, tugging harder.

"Stop!" Naruto called. "Stop, seriously!"

"You're hurting him!" Sakura bit at the Uchiha.

Sasuke was absolutely furious. He let go of Naruto, anger coursing through his body; he felt an unnatural heat of his skin, feeling his cheeks grow hot in infuriation. One slender hand lifted to the sky, palm outstretched, completely ready to make contact with soft flesh –

"Well, well, well."

Someone grabbed his wrist before it could descend.

Kakashi.

The man stood behind Sasuke, one gloved hand casually in his pocket, the other wrapped tightly around Sasuke's thin wrist as he stared nonchalantly at the scene in front of him.

"Naruto, I'll help you back right now," he said. "You'll be the first one to have a one-on-one with me. Sakura, Sasuke – the two of you head back on your own. I'll speak with you later."

He watched Sakura leave, his hand still wrapped tightly around Sasuke's wrist. He gave the prominent bone a tight squeeze and turned Sasuke's face so the younger man was looking directly at him.

"You know better than that," he told him simply, his exposed eye showing utter seriousness.

And disappointment.

There was that look again – disappointment. The same look Kakashi had given him countless times while he was imprisoned. The very same look. Sasuke wrenched his arm away violently, unable to look at his former teacher anymore. He stalked away in silent seething.

Naruto was left to stare blankly into the distance.

"What happened?"

----------

Sakura ran to the base having previously memorized the route, her cheeks flushed and her eyes rimming with red. She ran into the large cabin, not even bothering to close the front door, into the room solely for her, and collapsed onto her futon.

_Sasuke . . ._

"Damn it!" she cried out, frustrated as she pounded the wooden floor with her fist.

He had been about to _slap_ her. She had gone so far with his anger, had tested every point of patience with him that the calm and collected Sasuke had been about to _slap_ her.

_I'm torturing him in my own way,_ she tried to convince herself. _He's a traitor. He deserves punishment. What I'm doing is his punishment._

She couldn't convince herself.

She burst into tears. **[1]**

----------

Sasuke followed the traces of chakra left fading on the earth, seeing the tall and erect cabin from over the shorter trees not far off from where he walked. It was completely made of wood; Yamato, Kakashi had mentioned, had built it. Sasuke recalled a vague memory of Yamato, having seen him once or twice. He was a Wood Element user – an experiment.

Like Sasuke would've been.

He shook the thoughts from his mind as he reached the foot of the cabin, staring up at the two-story house. Yamato must have been bored. There were intricate designs carved into the wooden porch, and the sliding door had a welcome sign above it. Sasuke ignored it. He wasn't welcome anywhere.

He grimaced when he entered, hearing sounds he had heard plenty of times.

Sakura was crying.

"Idiot," Sasuke muttered softly. She couldn't hear herself, and so her crying was obnoxiously loud. It wasn't hysterical, but the few sobs here and there could be heard from beneath the banister Yamato had been so careful to put in.

Every time Sakura cried, he remembered, it had been for him.

Because of him.

And he had done it again.

He tried his best to ignore the sounds, knowing Sakura wouldn't hear him as he ascended the stairs and into his own room. Indifference – it was how he went about everything. Just walk away and ignore it and it'll stop eventually.

He hoped Naruto didn't come back soon.

Yamato had placed the boys' room directly next to Sakura's, with paper-thin walls, Sasuke noticed with a grimace of disgust. He could hear Sakura more clearly than he could before. The sobs grated his nerves as he unraveled his futon and placed it in the corner.

_Stop already!_ he wanted to scream, but knew it was futile. He was mute. She was deaf.

Whatever she was doing to him, it was working. If she wanted to punish him, he felt punished. He sat in the corner of the room, pulling his knees to his chest, thinking. She was trying to punish him, he knew. But simply ignoring him would've sufficed. To make him want to hit her was going over the edge.

He hadn't meant to raise his hand.

He had only wanted . . . what had he wanted? Had he really wanted to hurt her? Or had he wanted to take out all the anger he had pent-up inside of him, from every punishment, onto a punisher who was vulnerable?

Sakura's sobs died down minutes before Kakashi walked into the house and uttered a rather loud, "We're home!"

Sasuke was grateful.

He did not move, hearing Naruto clamber clumsily up the steps. The boy knocked on Sakura's door first, and he could hear him ask if she was okay. She asked him to repeat what he said, then replied that she was tired and would get some sleep. Naruto burst through Sasuke's door next.

"Bastard," he exclaimed, looking around the room. "I know you're in here. You didn't have to hurt Sakura like that." He began walking around, his arms flailing in front of him. "Where are you? I bet you're in a corner, huh?"

He felt the walls, moving along the flat surface until his hands reached the edge and felt a corner. Sasuke watched him with a hint of amusement before the blond finally managed to find – and trip over – him. He saw angry azure eyes glance waveringly in his direction, blond eyebrows furrowed.

"You did something to her," he said accusingly. Then, as if demanding an explanation, he held the palm of his hand out to wait for Sasuke to write something.

N-O, the brunet spelled out lazily.

"Liar. She sounded like she was crying."

_She was making a fucking waterfall._

"You're supposed to be trying to make a better relationship, Sasuke, not destroying one!" He waited for Sasuke's response, but none came. "Oi, you bastard! Talk to me!"

Sasuke laid his head on his knees and wrapped his arms tightly around his knees.

"Sasuke!"

"Naruto, come on. We're going to have that one-on-one now."

Kakashi leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest and his legs crossed at their ankles as he stared lazily at Naruto with a single gray eye. Naruto turned in his general direction and frowned.

"Make him talk," he said simply.

"I'll make him talk when we have our one-on-one. But right now, I need to help you out since you've got the hardest disability to overcome. So follow my voice and let's head downstairs."

An internal battle went on quickly in Naruto's mind. His emotions battled with sticks and stones, fighting desperately against his obedience. Obedience, however, fought with rifles and AK-47s. The battle was quickly won, and Naruto silently trudged away, listening to Kakashi hum the tune to some childhood ditty.

Sasuke sighed and put his head back onto his knees.

This would be a _long_ month.

Naruto, in the meantime, was having slight trouble moving down the stairs to follow Kakashi's voice. He held on tightly to the railing of the banister, stretching one foot out testily to the next stair before transferring his weight onto it.

"You're going to have to move a lot faster than that if you're going to try and battle enemy ninja," Kakashi teased from the bottom of the stairs, watching his blond student with amusement.

"There aren't going to be _stairs_ when I battle enemy ninja!"

"Yes, but there'll be mountains, and hills, and lots of rocks, and quite possibly sand. Stairs are a walk in the park compared to reality."

Naruto grumbled in response and tried increasing his pace going down the stairs. He ended up missing one step, stumbling over the next, and then tumbling down the remaining four steps to land at Kakashi's feet.

Mission accomplished.

"Well, at least you got downstairs."

Grumble.

Kakashi helped him up and pressed a finger to Naruto's lips before quickly backing him away beneath the banister.

"Listen to me and don't say anything," he whispered.

Naruto raised his eyebrows in confusion, his sapphire eyes desperately trying to find a single image to rest on.

"Your one-on-one is going to be a little different from Sasuke and Sakura's. You will be going on a mini-mission with me."

At these words, Naruto's eyes sparked with life. His teeth were easily visible from the wide grin that crinkled his whiskers and his eyes, but following Kakashi's word, he said nothing.

"I'm sending Sakura and Sasuke out on a mission to gather food and wood for dinner. Alone. Together. You and I will follow them, but here is your mission: you can_not_ allow them to see you, or feel your presence. You must mask your chakra at all times while also carrying out the techniques I teach you along the way. Is that understood?"

"This is the _greatest_ thing you've ever done, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto whispered excitedly, moving to jab at the man with his hand.

"I'm over here."

"Damn it!"

Kakashi let out a hearty laugh, patting Naruto teasingly on the head, and began to head upstairs. "We'd better start before it gets darker. I know there's a river around the bend, and wood shouldn't be hard to find, so they won't stray too far."

He knocked uselessly on Sakura's door. Realizing this, he opened the door wide enough to fit his hand in and wave it to announce his presence. Sakura gave a choked laugh from behind the walls.

"You can come in, Kakashi-sensei," she said, watching the silver-haired man enter with a hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"I've got a mini mission for you to do while I talk to Naruto," he said slowly, exaggerating his lip movement so Sakura would catch it. But Sakura stared at him blankly and frowned.

"If you would just take off that mask of yours . . ."

"Nice try, but no," he said pointlessly. His hands drew a notepad and a pen from his vest and he quickly scribbled his message, telling Sakura of the wood- and food-gathering mission he had in mind (but not mentioning Sasuke) and that she would need to learn how to read lips through masks because he was running out of paper and ink.

She smiled and said she would be glad to do it. Kakashi left her while she was gathering gear to bring and quietly entered Sasuke's room.

As he had expected, the boy had not moved from his position in the corner. His shoulders were tense, his back probably aching at the posture yet he did not move, even when Kakashi stood in front of him.

"I've got a mini mission for you while I talk to Naruto," he repeated the statement to the Uchiha. "You're going to gather food and wood for dinner. Come on."

Sasuke finally moved to stare at him, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Grab some gear and head out," Kakashi told him. Then, casually and with the nonchalant wave of his hand, he said, "Oh, and you're going to be doing this together with Sakura. So enjoy."

_What?!_

Sasuke moved to stand, his lips screaming, _"Kakashi!"_ Kakashi smirked at his ingenuity. There was no way the Uchiha could protest.

Good.

"Hurry up before it gets completely dark," Kakashi poured salt on the wound, "and make sure you bring something to fish wish. And don't do anything stupid. Good luck."

He smiled and left. Sasuke kicked the wall.

This would not be good.

Sasuke and Sakura left their rooms simultaneously, walking to the top of the stairs to stand side-by-side, neither of them acknowledging the other. Sakura shot a fleeting glance at the Uchiha from the corner of her eyes. She thought it was merely coincidence that Sasuke was there . . . with a bag over his shoulders . . . looking like he was ready to go out to do some work . . .

Damn it.

She put a hand to her forehead, sighing. "You've got to be kidding me."

As if simply to smite her, Kakashi appeared, right on cue. "Ah, Sakura, Sasuke. What a pleasant surprise that the two of you are going to gather our dinner at the same time."

The two students shot him pointed glares.

"Well, since you're coincidentally together, I'm sure you'll be taking care of each other." The silver-haired man crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Sakura. "So wherever Sasuke goes, you will go. Sasuke, wherever Sakura goes, you will go. If the two of you do not follow each other at their heels, I will have you deported from this mission. Is that understood?"

_Deported?_ thought Sakura as she stared at the instructional card Kakashi had handed her, her eyes widening in surprise by a fraction of an inch. _He can't do that, can he? This is an A-ranked mission!_

"And yes, I can deport you."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes but did nothing to indicate objection. He shifted the bag over his right shoulder and nodded, heading out of the cabin. Sakura followed in a haze of confusion. The two of them left the cabin, neither of them making any effort to communicate with the other. His heart beat calmly, his mind still and unmoved like a grain of sand that had yet to meet the crashing waves. Her mind was wild and frenzied, her heart pounding silently in her breast like a captured animal that begged to be free.

Determined not to let Sasuke be the superior man, she set off adamantly in the direction she remembered the river being, not looking back to see if he was following her quick strides. Sasuke looked indecisive for a moment, caught between following her obvious determination and choosing a path of his own. His decision was made when he suddenly felt the flare of a chakra trace behind him.

Definitely Naruto.

Sasuke smiled inwardly. The idiot.

He took off behind Sakura, hands in pockets, smirk in place. Kakashi knew the second he saw Sasuke's changed expression that Naruto had failed his mission. He didn't dare say anything to the oblivious blond. This was too much fun.

"Okay, Naruto," Kakashi said from up in the trees as the two watched Sasuke fall into step five paces behind Sakura. The blond shifted his attention to the silver-haired man's general direction and frowned.

"Sasuke's masking his chakra again," he said disappointedly. "I can only see a small blob of chakra for Sakura. This isn't helping me at all."

_I'm not surprised that kid's masking his chakra._

"Don't focus on the chakra at the center of their bodies," Kakashi said instead. "Focus on the largest points at the outline of their bodies. Do you remember where the chakra points were located?"

Naruto tried to draw the information from his academy days. He vaguely reckoned that it would have been so much easier if he had just been a Hyuuga; being blind wouldn't be a hassle for them. An indistinct memory came to his mind and he squinted pointlessly to try and remember it.

". . . I think so . . ." he answered testily, still squinting.

"Where are the largest of the chakra holes located?"

Kakashi jumped a few branches forward and heard Naruto follow the traces of chakra from his foot to land where he had landed seconds before. He could see Sakura from where he stood and watched as she disappeared from view again, Sasuke slowing his pace in silence behind her.

"The knees," Naruto said with a hint of doubt. "The elbows, too, and the palms of the hands. Right?"

Kakashi smiled. "Right." He jumped ahead until Sakura was in plain view. The calm current of the river could be heard nearby. "Look directly ahead of you and then tilt your head forty-five degrees downwards. That's Sakura. Focus on the chakra at the center of her body and then see if you can pinpoint her largest chakra holes. Not only does it take less energy, but it also gives you an idea of her movement."

Naruto did exactly as he was told and managed to find Sakura's central chakra. "Why can't I just make a few clones and surround her so that I can focus on her chakra better?"

"Clones make a spark of chakra every time they appear. If we were surrounded by the enemy and masking our chakra, he would have found us by the time you masked the chakra of all of your clones."

"I can't see anything except her central chakra."

"I didn't expect you to get it right off the bat, anyway. It'll take a lot of practice. Focus on her constantly. She's going to be stopping by the river soon so that'll provide a good opportunity to get a lot of practice in."

"In the meantime," Naruto said as he followed Kakashi ahead a few meters, "you have to narrate everything they're doing. Don't leave out a single detail!"

"He's following her," Naruto heard Kakashi's lazy drone say. "He's coming up right behind her. Closer. Closer. And – oh my God, he put his hand on her butt!"

"What?!" Naruto tried to stifle his scream. "That bastard! I'm going to _kill_ him!"

He suddenly heard the turn of a page, and the world made sense again.

"Kakashi-sensei, damn it! Stop reading your book at a time like this and tell me what's really going on!"

Sakura stared at the river for a few moments, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear. The action was futile in itself; her hair simply slipped from her ear and returned to tickle her nose in vengeance. She huffed and kneeled by the bank, her bag at her side, and watched as colorful arrays of fish splashed and popped through the clear water.

She heard Sasuke move behind her in silence and saw his sandaled feet out of the corner of her eye. He was watching the river, too. Unmoving. Sakura decided that she would be the first to move and when she caught the majority of the fish, she would make sure that Sasuke could see so that she could silently gloat and watch as he turned away in shame.

Except she just _couldn't_ fasten a stupid net!

The wire she had unraveled from her bag refused to be molded into a net to catch the fish in. There was no other way; a fishing rod was out of the question since the branches around her were too flimsy to withstand the powerful struggles of the fish in the river.

"She can't make a fishing net with the type of wire she has," Kakashi told Naruto as the blond desperately tried to focus on the chakra in the palms of her hands. "I don't think she thought we'd be fishing, especially in this cold weather."

"What's Sasuke doing?"

Kakashi was silent for a while, watching the Uchiha (whose expression had returned to an emotionless mask) drop his bag to the ground. His eyebrows rose.

Sakura saw the sudden splash of droplets in her vision and turned in surprise. Sasuke was in the water, his pants rolled to his knees and his sandals abandoned by the bank of the river as he watched the clear currents with narrowed obsidian eyes. His arms, on which he had rolled his sleeves to his elbows, were out in alert.

_Is he going to catch the fish like that?_ Sakura asked herself with widened eyes. _The water is freezing! There's ice floating on the top! Can he not feel it?_

She saw the sudden flash of pale arms and a splash of water and suddenly, Sasuke was holding a powerfully-struggling bass in his hands. In her surprise, she continued to stare blankly at the fish that desperately gaped for water to fill its lungs until she realized that Sasuke's gaze was upon her.

He was staring pointedly at her, trying to send her a silent message. She got it:

_Give me something to put the fish in._

She thought a "damn it" was added at the end of the message by the intensity of the glare, but ignored the thought as she held out the basket she had carried with her for such an occasion. Sasuke sent a surge of chakra into the fish's gills and it suddenly went limp before he threw it into the basket without a second thought. Small droplets of freezing water fell on Sakura's bare arms and she shivered at the sudden chill.

"Sasuke caught a fish with his bare hands," Kakashi continued to narrate. He saw Naruto stare in his direction in disbelief.

"He's in the water? It's _freezing!_"

"He caught another fish. Sakura got a basket out for him. Neither of them said anything; they're just acting on their own accord."

At this, Naruto tried to focus with even more intensity, desperate to master the technique so that he could see the ongoing. He could see a slight flicker coming from Sakura's elbows, but nothing else.

"Sasuke fell in the water."

Sakura turned around from examining the fish in the basket after feeling an unusually large amount of droplets stain her shirt. Sasuke had fallen backwards in the water and was now propped up by his hands, his waist completely submerged beneath the clear water. Colorful flashes of fish darted around him in fear of the splash.

Angry, the Uchiha stood up and held out a particularly large and struggling trout by the tail. He quickly put it out of its misery with the swipe of his hand and let it flop lifelessly in the basket as he stepped onto the riverbank slowly, his drenched clothing dripping with the freezing water.

Sakura watched his actions as if in a trance. He had managed to catch their dinner for the night and was now soaked to the bone with icy water; his dark shirt clung to his unusually pale frame. As if to signal the end of the fishing session, he picked up the basket of fish and began to walk away.

Sakura did not object. A part of her wanted to tease Sasuke endlessly in his humiliation so that he would suffer. The sensible part of her remained silent as she quickly tossed her things into her bag and walked after the angry Uchiha. The faster they collected wood and got back to the cabin, the faster he would get out of those drenched clothes before hypothermia set in.

She slapped herself mentally.

Why was she worrying about him?

She told herself it was the medical side of her. She had sworn to help all injured patients. And besides, Sasuke would be a nuisance if he was sick. He would slow them down in their mission, and the Feudal Lord would be in terrible danger.

Yes, yes, that was the real reason she was worrying. She was looking out for the success of the mission.

Kakashi followed them back from the forest. "She's moving closer to him," he said.

"This had better not be one of your sick novels again," Naruto grumbled.

"How much can you see?"

"I've got her elbows, but they're a little blurry. It looks like she's carrying something in one hand."

"She is."

Kakashi smiled at Naruto's sudden bout of excitement before returning his attention to Sakura. She was painstakingly close to the Uchiha now. Conversation-close. He listened closely.

"She's talking to him," he said, unable to contain the slight surprise lacing his voice.

Naruto grew even more anxious. "Shh! I need to listen to what she's saying!"

Sakura fell into step with the Uchiha, not turning to look at him. "Go back to the cabin," she whispered into the night air. Her breath flew out in front of her like fog that had set on the early morning. "I'll get the firewood. If you get sick, you'll slow us down on the mission."

Sasuke snorted, knowing she couldn't hear him. He did not show any indication that he had any intention to go back to the cabin without firewood. Sakura pursed her lips.

"You don't have to be stubborn about it. Think about the safety of the escort we are trying to have. If you're sick, his life is in danger because we won't have an adequate number of ninja to act as a distraction and an escort at the same time. Stop being so selfish."

_I'm the one being selfish? _Sasuke asked himself inwardly, continuing on with his direction. _You probably don't want to take care of me if I get sick. It'll be too much of a hassle for you._

"If you get sick, I won't take care of you. You'll die of hypothermia."

_See?_

"At least pick up your pace."

Just to smite her, he slowed his pace. She noticed this and furrowed her eyebrows in anger, bending down to pick up stray sticks from the dying trees around them.

"Sasuke's being an idiot," Kakashi told Naruto as they continued to watch. "I can see him shivering from here. If he doesn't hurry to the cabin, he's going to get a nasty case of hypothermia. It doesn't help that he isn't in top condition."

"I say we ambush him, knock him unconscious, and take him back," Naruto commented seriously.

Kakashi still didn't tell him that not only would Sasuke expect the ambush, he would knock the blind blond unconscious first.

Sakura did what she could to hurry Sasuke along to the cabin, already beginning to see his shallow breaths in the night air. She quickly collected whatever firewood she could find scattered on the ground, adequate or not, and turned to the Uchiha to show him that she had collected enough for the night.

"Now let's head back. Kakashi and Naruto are probably waiting for us, and I don't want Naruto to annoy me about how hungry he is."

Kakashi quickly covered Naruto's mouth with his gloved hand before the whiskered boy had the chance to react.

Sasuke found himself absently quickening his pace. He had to admit that it was getting slightly colder around him and he could feel his lungs constricting, different from the constriction of his throat he had felt when Kakashi had taken away his ability to speak. He heard the hoot of an owl overhead, the crunch of the dead grass beneath his sandals as he saw the cabin in the near distance. The basket of fish in his hand began to grow heavier.

Kakashi and Naruto hurried ahead of the two (Naruto having little to no difficulty now at moving through the trees, although he was exhausted) and into the cabin before Sasuke or Sakura had the chance to realize they were gone. Naruto collapsed to the floor in his exhaustion, closing his eyes and holding his head in his hands.

When Sasuke and Sakura entered, he allowed what was left of his energy to look for Sasuke's chakra and stare pointedly in his direction.

"You smell like dead fish and water," he said bluntly, feigning his lack of knowledge.

"Sasuke," he heard Kakashi say. "Go and change right now before you catch something nasty and come out to sit by the fire. Sakura, please help Naruto scale the fish to prepare them for cooking. I'm going to go set up the fire."

Naruto managed to grab Sasuke's arm as he felt the boy pass him. His fingers felt the rough skin in his grasp; goosebumps dotted his cold, cold skin, raising the smooth hairs on the Uchiha's arm.

"I can hear you breathing," he told him.

Sasuke carefully slid from Naruto's grasp and held out his palm. N-O, he wrote lazily to humor himself before carrying on upstairs.

"Yes!" Naruto shouted after him as he turned to feel for the walls to reach Sakura. He felt a warm hand slide into his; a slender, smooth hand. Sakura's hand.

"You're probably starving after training with Kakashi," she told him, and Naruto could imagine the sweet smile upon her face as her emerald eyes narrowed in delight. "So we'd better hurry with the fish. I'll bet you'll have so much trouble when you're eating. Those bones are picky."

"You'll have to feed me, then." Naruto opened his mouth for exaggeration as he allowed himself to be led by Sakura.

"Idiot," was all she said.

Naruto kept his smile, but he frowned slightly on the inside. He wondered if Sakura was just talking with him to forget about Sasuke. It was working.

He felt the intense heat of the fire in front of the cabin. The smell of the burning wood reached his nostrils with choking intensity until he was led to what he assumed was the side of the cabin. Sakura released his hand and he heard the clank of metal. Knives.

"Here," Sakura told him, pushing the hilt of the knife into his fist. "You know how to remove the scales of the fish, right? Feel for it here."

The warmth he gained from Sakura's hand guiding his own to the cold flesh of the fish sent goosebumps along his own arms, hidden beneath the comfortable sleeves of his sweater.

"No, I don't want you to do anything right now."

Kakashi's voice was suddenly speaking to someone. Naruto assumed Sasuke had just returned and wondered what the shivering boy looked like at that very moment. He listened intently to Kakashi as his fingers felt clumsily for the head of the fish he was working on. A sudden silence from Sakura told him that she was listening as well.

"You can't even move your hands properly. Come closer to the fire. No, you're not helping me. Are you even listening? Sasuke? Sasuke! Hey, hey, hey, lay down. Come on."

Naruto felt Sakura turn around. He didn't know how he felt it. Perhaps it was the change in the air currents, or the rustle of her shirt; he just _knew_ that she had turned to stare at what was going on with the Uchiha. He growled inwardly, absolutely frustrated that all he could do was turn and stare blankly into oblivion as his best friend was ill. Sasuke could be naked for all he knew.

"You're going back inside. Don't argue with me," Kakashi scolded the silence. "Your muscles are already constricting. Come on, Sasuke, don't make this difficult. I can lift you with my pinky."

The Uchiha begged to differ. He lay on the floor near the fire, trying desperately to prop himself up into a sitting position despite the vertigo in his mind telling him to just sleep then and there. The shivering of his body was easily seen through the light shirt that clung to his thin frame. Kakashi was trying to help him into a sitting position, but Sasuke's muscles would not comply.

"Kakashi-sensei, the fire is warmer than the cabin," Sakura interjected. "We should just lay out several blankets for him and set him close to the fire until his body temperature goes back up two degrees. He's only in stage one of three of hypothermia."

Kakashi smirked beneath his mask. "What would we do without you?" he asked her despite knowing she couldn't hear him. He nodded his head exaggeratedly and pointed a finger in the direction of the cabin, indicating that she should go get the blankets. She did so.

Sasuke was growing angrier by the second.

He didn't like being babied, and he certainly didn't like being told what to do. He didn't have hypothermia. He was just really cold. Yeah. Really cold. That's it. That was why he couldn't feel his hands, or control his body movement, or why he swayed with the urge to vomit.

Sakura returned with a large bundle of blankets that had come from within the cabin. She helped Kakashi set them out on the floor, her hands washed from the smell of the fish. Kakashi pushed Sasuke into one bundle and tried to cover him up. Sasuke stubbornly kicked the blanket on top of him aside.

"I am not afraid to knock you unconscious," Kakashi threatened him. "You get to pick."

Sasuke picked consciousness.

"This is what you get for not returning as quickly as possible when you're wet in weather like this. Make smarter choices next time and stop being so damn stubborn."

Sasuke saw the same disappointed glance in Kakashi's eyes and he gritted his teeth in anger, rolling over with difficulty so that he could watch the flickering flames dance with intensity.

Naruto's frustration was growing as well. He hated being blind. He hated not being able to see Sasuke when he was hurt, not being able to help properly, not being able to do the things he could once do. He hated feeling exhausted every time he wanted to get around by sensing for chakra traces.

He hated it.

It was like being a dolphin and not having fins. It was like being a snake with a straight backbone. It was a limitation, a hindrance, and Naruto had no patience to get over it. He wanted to see _now_. He wanted to see Sakura when she held his hand, to see Sasuke as he sat helplessly by the fire in frustration.

Damn it!

"Naruto!"

He pulled the knife from the fish in sudden realization that he had stabbed it in his anger. Turning in Sakura's general direction, his mouth opened stupidly much like the fish had done only minutes ago.

". . . Sorry," he said lamely, his unseeing eyes impulsively trailing to the ground. He could feel Sakura's gaze upon his back. "That'll be my fish."

"It's frustrating, isn't it?"

Sakura moved to stand next to him again, her hands moving to scale the fish. She was glad Naruto was blind. Her hands were shaking.

"Having a disability. It's really frustrating. I mean, mine isn't _that_ bad, but being blind is just awful."

Naruto was silent for a few moments, the extent of his anger deflating. He groped for another fish to scale before whispering in a voice that was barely audible, "Please." He turned so that Sakura could see his lips clearly. "Just look at him and tell me what he looks like right now. I want to help him."

Sakura understood. She pursed her lips, her hands unable to carry on scaling the fish. Naruto heard the sigh that escaped her lips and felt her turn around to stare.

"His eyes are closed," she whispered softly. "He looks like he's sleeping, but I can tell he isn't. You can't see his body beneath the blankets, but even a blind man can tell he's shivering." She smiled at this, and Naruto smiled, too. Her voice carried on with a wistful tone. "His face is too pale, his hair is still wet and it's so long that the bangs reach his chin, the skin around his eyes is dark. There's a pink flush on his cheeks that means he's obviously coming down with a fever, and his lips have a tinge of blue to them . . ."

Naruto stared at Sakura instead, trying to imagine her figure in the night, the glow of the fire radiating. He could see her dreamy glance for the boy that lay resting by the fire, her lidded emerald eyes, and he sighed.

"Thanks," he whispered back, not bothering to wonder if she read his lips or not.

"I'll start cooking the fish I finished."

Naruto knew she left. He could feel her lack of presence. It was like an emptiness somewhere; some small source of warmth was gone, leaving him in the bite of the winter's cold. He quickly finished scaling the fish and, holding the two by the tails in one fist, he groped along the sides of the cabin for where the fire was. There was no warm, soft hand to help him along.

* * *

**[1] She burst into tears** - Some people will say this is out of character. I say it isn't. In psychology, we read an article that told us that crying, to some extent, was a reaction to frustration, when someone is unable to do something. Does that not describe Sakura at that moment?


	3. Scandalous

**Author's Note:** Two words: Exam Week.

**IMPORTANT:** Sakura will do something stupid. You will shake your head and tell me it is OOC. I will laugh at you, because if you really think about it, about the situation, and about the evolution, it's not.

Thank you so much for the reviews, and the views. Your love is my inspiration.

**Chapter Three**

…**:::Scandalous:::…**

Kakashi stared from Sakura, to Naruto, to Sasuke. He frowned.

Sakura was by the fire. The sleeves of her sweater were rolled up as she handled the fish in the fire with her gloved hands, sweat beading down her face despite the coldness of the weather. She hadn't said a word since she had knelt by the fire and began to cook the food. Kakashi felt bad for not being able to break the stereotype, but the other two men were currently out of the question.

Naruto sat between Sakura and Sasuke, one knee drawn to his chest with his hand resting on it. He was frowning, an expression foreign to his tanned face. He, too, hadn't said a word and had seemed to be in deep thought since he sat down, his eyes straying from Sasuke's direction from time to time, to Sakura's direction.

The Uchiha hadn't moved since he was covered in the blankets. Despite the sweat rolling down his face, he was shivering, his teeth quietly chattering together. Kakashi feared his condition to be worsening, especially with the severe lack of nutrition he had encountered in the past few months.

Kakashi pushed himself from the side of the cabin and crossed the porch to where the fire burned. He tapped Sakura softly on the back.

"I want you to give Sasuke a checkup on his condition. I'll take the cooking from here," he said.

Sakura frowned. "I can't understand a single thing you say with that stupid mask on, Kakashi-sensei."

Tired for the night, Kakashi pointed at Sasuke, then pointed at his own eyes, trying to indicate a checkup. He did a few more pointless hand gestures and movements, unsure of what he was really doing. Sakura seemed to understand, though. The distaste on her face said it all. She stood up, handing the sticks of fish to Kakashi, and walked to where Sasuke lay shivering.

Naruto felt the sudden presence of warmth and moved his head in Sakura's general direction, curious.

The rosette pulled the covers of the blanket back from Sasuke's neck, exposing him from the waist up. At the sudden blow of cold, Sasuke's bloodshot eyes shot open and he stared around for the cause. Seeing Sakura, his blue-tinged lips quirked into a silent snarl.

"Now, now, Sasuke," Kakashi said from the other side of the fire. "You're getting worse as it is. We don't have a medic-nin on our team for nothing. Just let her take care of you for a few moments."

"Calm down, you bastard," Naruto spoke up and moved on his knees to grope for Sasuke's arms. "I'll hold you down if I have to."

Sasuke did nothing to show objection. He watched as Sakura's hands moved over his forehead, his nose, his neck, his chest. The faint green glow hurt his eyes and he shut them, feeling a powerful wave of nausea wash over him.

"He'll be feeling tired and sick," Sakura explained to no one in particular. "And his body temperature needs to rise one more degree, but then he'll have a fever for a few hours. Nothing he can't sleep off."

She didn't comment about the lack of nutrients in his body or the unusual way his shirt clung to his torso.

"Can he eat something?" asked Naruto, exaggerating his mouth movements so Sakura would see his words.

"He _can_, but he might not hold it down."

Sasuke gave her a look that said he would hold down his food or die trying.

"Good. Because dinner's ready. Let's get inside, shall we?"

Naruto had set up the "dinner table" in the cabin while Sakura had been cooking the fish, trying to make himself useful. Without the availability of plates, he had plucked the largest leaves he could find from nearby trees, setting out the chopsticks they had brought with them.

Remembering that Sasuke's muscles were constricted, the blond turned in the direction of the Uchiha slowly removing the blankets completely from his sweating body.

"You'll need to put on something heavier than just a t-shirt," said Kakashi, helping Sasuke stand despite the struggles he received. "We can't have that sweat dry from the cold. Do you think you can walk?"

Naruto could tell Sasuke was absolutely fuming; he imagined the sweat on the pale flesh turning into steam and rising into the cool night air. He tried imagining what it must be like to be babied like that. Kakashi had probably noticed Sasuke's anger, but he would rather have Sasuke not die and face the storm later.

Sakura had already placed the fish on the four leaves at the dinner table and placed a bottle of water in the center.

"This dinner will have to do until we get to the nearest village," Kakashi announced as he helped Sasuke take a seat and placed a blanket around his shoulders. He sat down next to the brooding boy and slid a pre-written index card across the table to Sakura. No one had the energy left to snort. "We'll be waking up early in the morning to continue on. The nearest village should be about five hours from here. We'll have one break in between, but watch out. There may or may not be enemies already beginning to search for us. I don't expect them to come now since we're so far away, but keep on your toes. I –"

"Itadakimasu!"

Naruto favored his growling stomach over Kakashi's instructions. He slapped his hands together, bowed, his head, and then immediately attempted to dig into his fish without another thought. Kakashi smiled slightly.

"More instructions in the morning, I guess," he said before staring at his fish.

All three of his students stared at him from the corner of their eyes, watching him (even Naruto, who knew he would get nowhere). Watching him. He was moving his hands to the chopsticks, one finger at the edge of his mask, ready to pull it down –

"Oh!" he said. "I forgot to wash my hands! How rude of me! Excuse me for a few moments."

And when he left, there was a sudden burst of simultaneous sighs.

So close . . .!

Sasuke picked at his fish with his chopsticks, unable to bring himself to swallow a bite. The wooden sticks between his fingers clicked together with the unsteadiness of his hand, sliding across the skin of the fish, puncturing random holes here and there. Naruto pretended he didn't hear the obvious frustration; he could imagine Sasuke's wounded pride and did not know how many more hits it could take before it bled to death.

Kakashi did not come back for a long time. Sakura and Naruto had already finished their dinner. It was then that the three realized there was no actual plumbing in the wooden cabin; Yamato could make chairs, tables, stairs, and provide futons, but there was no way he could suddenly install plumbing. When the silver-haired man sauntered through the door, he waved slightly, smiled, and sat back down.

"Ah, done already? Go walk around to digest and then it's off to bed with you two." He looked to the Uchiha who had taken three bites of the white flesh of the fish that had caused the chain reaction that led to his hypothermia. "You've barely eaten. At this rate, you'll have no energy to continue with the mission tomorrow."

Sasuke shook his head with no apparent meaning and continued to pick at his fish, bringing a bite to his lips in hopes of satisfying Kakashi. No such luck. The odd sensei only watched as Sakura went upstairs and Naruto left the cabin before turning to the Uchiha again.

"Your nutrient levels are drastically lowering again," he said seriously. "You've got to eat for energy. And would it kill you to get along?"

_It's almost killed me_, Sasuke thought, grimacing. He let another piece of fish slip past his lips and chewed slowly.

Kakashi lowered his voice. "I don't know how you were fed during those two weeks of torture, or how Orochimaru treated you, but obviously, something happened with your diet. This is the time to fix it."

_Fed? Ha!_

All Kakashi heard was silence.

"Fine. But I'm not the one that sleeps in the same room as Naruto. If I can't get to you, that boy will."

Kakashi stood, taking his empty leaf with him. Sasuke vaguely wondered when Kakashi had eaten his fish; perhaps he was superhuman, something beyond comprehension. He stopped thinking when another wave of nausea passed through his body to rattle his bones and he lurched forwards in sickness.

Six bites were enough, it seemed.

He followed Kakashi's suit, disposing of his food in a compost pile by the cabin, and then sluggishly heading upstairs. His hands unconsciously clenched the blanket around his shoulders tighter. His room was empty when he got there and he took advantage of that fact, casting the world aside as he fell onto his futon, the blanket still wrapped tightly around him.

Naruto entered seconds later. Sasuke heard him moving around heavily, feeling the walls with his hands and the floor with his feet. He turned around to find the blond staring in his general direction, a frown on his face. To get his attention, Sasuke tried to snap his fingers with his defrosting muscles. Naruto seemed to understand and walked forwards, feeling around for where he remembered Sasuke's futon to be. He outstretched his hand, palm facing up. Sasuke sat up with difficulty to write.

A-R-E Y-OU N-O-T G-O-I-N-G T-O L-E-C-T-U-R-E M-E?

He saw Naruto grip his shoulders with surprising gentleness, pushing him back down to the mat and groping for the hem of the blanket to pull to Sasuke's chin.

"Sleep, Sasuke," Naruto told him tiredly.

He didn't say anything else for the rest of the night. Sasuke was sure of that. He didn't sleep for the rest of the night.

It was the middle of the night when Kakashi's eyes opened lazily at the sudden noises coming from the hallway. Someone was running – with difficulty, it sounded – down the stairs. Loudly. He waited for a few seconds, trying to decipher who could possibly be waking in the middle of the night and moving around so carelessly. It couldn't possibly be Sasuke. Perhaps it was Sakura since she could not hear the noise she made, or Naruto, who was usually loud.

Suddenly, from outside, Kakashi heard the sound of vomiting.

Hm. He was wrong.

It was definitely Sasuke.

The fish and hypothermia had probably had one hell of a battle in his stomach, and now the hypothermia had won and out went the fish. Kakashi grimaced when he heard Sasuke retch violently again and vaguely wondered if Naruto could hear him. Probably not. Naruto would be out there making a huge fuss if he had.

Sighing, Kakashi thought it was time to play sensei and student again. He slowly made his way downstairs, hands in the pockets of his loose pants, feet padded by socks. The cabin door was open and so Kakashi leaned in its frame, watching Sasuke empty his stomach next to the trunk of a tree.

"I don't think you're doing it right," he remarked casually. "I thought the food was supposed to stay _in_ your stomach."

Sasuke shot him a vehement look that held no real threat behind the rolling obsidian eyes. He collapsed by the tree, panting heavily, utterly exhausted and shivering in his t-shirt sans blanket.

"I know you mind, and I know you'd probably try and hurt me if it was any other day, but I'm going to pick you up." Kakashi moved towards the Uchiha and stood over him for a few seconds. "You'll be in bed a lot faster than if you struggled and kicked and caused a hissy fit. Right? This'll only take a moment."

Sasuke wasn't even registering the words that Kakashi was saying. They came out as one long drone of words, "Uhhruuhbuuffaasskk." He vaguely felt something beneath his back and his knees, and he thought he was being lifted into the air for a second before he was back on his soft futon, the blanket around him once more.

As Kakashi left the room, he pretended he didn't see the tears that glistened on Naruto's cheeks.

Light poured in plentifully from the windows of Sakura's room, forcing the varnished wood to glisten and the air to warm as it danced and flickered through the gaps of the tree leaves outside. It shone over Sakura's peaceful visage in an attempt to wake her up. "Rise and shine," it said quite literally. Sakura obeyed. She opened one eye, and then the other, blinking lightly as she pushed herself up from the ground and rubbed her eyes.

She felt refreshed and briefly wondered how long she'd slept, and if anyone else was awake. Perhaps she could wash up in the river. Yes, that was what she would do. She sat up and stretched, moaning, and finally stood at last to venture out of her room in her bedroom robe.

The door to the boys' room, she noticed, was slightly ajar. She found it odd. Surely Sasuke, who valued privacy as the highest of all virtues, would close his door. Unless Naruto left in the middle of the night to answer the calls of nature. Either way, she had to pass the door on the way to the stairs; staring in wouldn't hurt.

Naruto was splayed out as usual, his bare chest visible from the top as his robe was undone, blankets helter-skelter, and arms and limbs at odd angles. Sasuke was gone.

Sakura narrowed her eyes.

His futon was pushed neatly into the corner, his robe folded above the equally-neat blankets. His bag was missing, too. Suddenly, Sakura's eyes widened.

Sasuke had escaped!

He had left in the middle of the night, using the opportunity to finally be able to leave without someone stopping him! That low, dirty, son of a –

Sakura saw the flicker of a figure from the window in the boys' room. Without a moment's hesitation, she flew down the stairs, wrenching open the door to run outside. The wooden floor of the porch was cold against her bare feet and the grass was even more so, wet with dew that tickled at the soles of her feet as she ran with determination to the back of the cabin where the trail into the forest began.

She could see Sasuke's figure in the near distance, bag slung over his shoulder, something in his hand and out of her vision. Summoning every bit of adrenaline that came to her at that instance, Sakura propelled herself forward in determination to reach his figure.

Rational thinking be damned.

"You!" she called out in a voice she was sure was not a whisper.

She saw Sasuke stop, but not turn around. Only when she was five paces away did her feet demand to stop.

"How dare you think you could run away again?!" she blurted. "After everything the village has been through to bring you back, after everything we've done, how dare you think that you could just get up and try to escape again and –"

Sasuke turned around.

She stopped.

Oh.

In his hands was a basket of assorted food from the forest, including a colorful array of berries and herbs. Sakura could feel her face heating up. How could she let her emotions win over her logic? How could she let herself blurt those words and embarrass herself in front of the one person she did _not_ want to embarrass herself in front of?! She couldn't bring herself to stare at Sasuke's face. It was only then that she realized how thankful she was that he couldn't speak.

But she _could_ see the handle of the wooden basket begin to break with the strength of Sasuke's fisting hand. She allowed herself a moment's glance at his face and once she did, she couldn't look away. He was definitely angry. His slender eyebrows were drawn together, his bloodshot eyes ablaze, and his mouth was forming words she could not hear. But she could faintly make out the angry rant.

_Are these the conclusions you jump to?_ he visibly spat. _Is that the reputation I have in your mind? Am I always going to be a traitor? Take a good look at yourself! You're still in your yukata!_

When she read these words from his lips, she gasped and turned around, one hand unconsciously going to close the opening of her bedroom yukata. She stared at her feet where she just began to feel the threatening weather.

How could she . . .?!

This was be_yond_ embarrassing. She vaguely wondered why she cared so much; it was just Sasuke. Just Sasuke. Just the boy she had had a crush on since forever. Just the man she claimed was a traitor. Just the person who was staring at her then and there for her lame explanation, for an apology, for anything that would soothe the anger that was surging through his veins.

"I . . . I . . ."

She had no words. What was she supposed to tell him? "Yes, Sasuke, I thought you were betraying us again" or "You son of a bitch, how dare you accuse me of caring?"

His face did not relax and he, instead, began walking in the direction she had come. She could see his faint shivers beneath the cloak he had put on, the darkness beneath his tired eyes, feel the coldness radiating from his body, but she did not miss the words from his lips:

_You're annoying._

And just like that, déjà vu.

She didn't move until she was sure he had rounded the side of the cabin and disappeared. Frustration was building quickly in her, but her eyes were dry. Crying? For Sasuke? Because of him? She'd done enough of that and vowed never to do so again.

Slowly, she began the awkward trek back to the cabin.

Sasuke was in the main room when she returned. He was emptying out the contents of his bag onto a large leaf set out on the dining table: wild apples, uprooted herbs, and wild roses. These fell beside the basket of dark red chokecherries, mints, and wintergreens. The Uchiha did not cast a single glance at the entering figure, nor did he give any sign that he noticed her existence at all. He merely carried on putting the food into piles and emptying the dirt from his bag outside.

When Sakura reached the stairs, Sasuke finally raised his head to stare at her retreating figure. His eyebrows furrowed again.

What had their relationship come to? It was like Sasuke had never existed before he left. Everything he had been through as a team with the rosette had never happened. He was now just a stranger. A traitorous stranger.

Kakashi descended the steps as Sasuke had been putting the herbs into a basket.

"Oh? You're up early." He leaned onto the table, rubbing his visible eye from sleepiness. "And it looks like you've been busy. How are you feeling?"

Sasuke did not grace the man with an answer of any kind. He shoved as many of the leafy herbs as he could into the basket.

"Wintergreen?" the whimsical sensei carried on anyway. "Are you feeling sick? These aren't exactly the best-tasting berries to get."

Sasuke shot him a pointed look. _No,_ he thought sarcastically. _I was throwing up outside because I'm worried about my figure._

"Why don't we get Naruto to wash those herbs for you? You're still shivering. I brought some herbs along with me and I'll ask Sakura if she has any more."

Sasuke laughed humorlessly in his head. Ask Sakura? For him? What a joke! He shook his head and continued out with the basket, but Kakashi stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. A single gray eye stared at him sternly.

"I insist."

The basket was released with a sigh. Sasuke nodded his head, indicated that he would leave to wake up Naruto, and trekked slowly upstairs. Kakashi watched him go with a knowing look in his eyes before he pulled out his infamous orange-covered book, grabbed the basket of herbs, and left.

Sasuke was surprised to find Naruto already awake and – an even greater surprise – folding his futon into the corner. The blond immediately turned in his direction and smiled.

"Sasuke!" he announced loudly. "It's definitely Sasuke. Kakashi would've said something by now, and I can hear Sakura in the other room. Or you're an enemy ninja, but I'd probably be dead by now. Or hurt. Or being tortured. So you're Sasuke, right?"

He received a flick on the ear.

"Yeah, you're Sasuke."

Naruto felt his hand get taken and allowed Sasuke to lead his fingers to his futon; he didn't comment on the iciness of the fingers that guided him. A question mark was drawn on the palm of his hands and he understood.

"I don't normally do this, huh?" he said with a sheepish smile. "I just don't want to trip on the mat when I go back into the room. It makes things a lot easier." He felt Sasuke's finger tap his temple and he smiled, swatting at the Uchiha's hand. "Let's eat breakfast and leave really quickly! I want to get some action today and try out the new chakra-sensing tip Kakashi-sensei gave me!"

His wrist was being tugged on and he complied, getting up from the floor to follow after Sasuke (or an enemy ninja unusually good at imitating Sasuke?) out, down the stairs, and to a seat at the dining table. He felt Sasuke's presence leave and two more figures come closer.

"What's for breakfast?" he asked, groping the leaves on the table.

"Lots of fruit." That was Sakura's voice, coming from in front of him. Naruto thought it sounded a bit off, like there was another emotion cutting into her voice box. "Wild berries, herbs, and other fruit to give you a bit of energy until we reach the nearest town."

"I didn't know we packed berries."

"Sasuke got them for us." Kakashi. To the left. Cheerful. Naruto immediately knew he had been reading his book of perversions – there was just a certain tone that he hadn't realized until then. "I was out back washing them. Don't look so surprised, Sasuke. I pulled the water from the ground with a water-based jutsu. That's the beauty of knowing multiple elements." A pause, and then, "Why so quiet, kiddies?"

"What's the plan, Kakashi-sensei?" interrupted Sakura.

Naruto still felt unnerved at the permanent darkness placed upon him, but he had begun to pick up on little things that he had never noticed before. Like the tone of voices Kakashi and Sakura had, and the differences in them depending on what happened. Or like the sliding of the card now as he knew Kakashi was giving Sakura another pre-written index card of instructions.

"I'll be working with Sakura as we head to the nearest town. That means Sasuke and Naruto are leading. We'll take a small break, stock up on a few things, have lunch, and then head back out. Our destination village is three towns from here. It'll take an easy week to get there. So let's have some breakfast, pack our things, and vamoose."

Naruto did not like the odd, tensional silence that ensued. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth, unable to come to life to spark up conversation. He knew something had happened between Sasuke and Sakura again. What he didn't know was _what_ had happened, and it was frustrating him. The sole reason they were doing this mission was so they could be a normal team again, but if the two of them kept acting like more of a child than he himself acted, they wouldn't get anywhere!

"Don't eat too many chokeberries," Sakura said randomly in the midst of the silence. Naruto couldn't tell who she was talking to. "They're the smallest berries, Naruto. You're reaching for one right now."

"Why not?"

He put one into his mouth and immediately regretted his decision. The bitter taste that burst over his taste buds was overwhelming. He spat the foul thing out on the ground next to him and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Eat too many and the bitter taste will stay in your mouth for a long time."

"Why the heck did you pick these things, Sasuke?" the blond accused. "Does being mute affect your sense of taste, too?"

"They're a great source of Vitamin C," Kakashi commented casually as he picked up a handful of berries. "Hurry up and eat. We need to leave."

They ate their breakfast and left the cabin soon after that, heading into the trees to resume their journey. Kakashi stayed behind with Sakura as he had instructed. Naruto was forced behind Sasuke in order to locate the chakra from Sasuke's feet, effectively making the Uchiha the lead.

"I'm not going to let you stop until you learn how to read my lips through my mask," Kakashi said, handing her a pre-written index card anyway. "Try to pick up on certain ways my mask moves when I make vowels. I'm not the only person who will wear some kind of obstructing cover-up; you could be up against enemies with masks like ANBU, and then you'd really be in trouble. You'll have to learn to observe body language as well."

He stared at her as she read the words from the index card and nodded.

"Now, to speed up this lovely process, I'm going to hit you." He smiled. "But before I hit you, I'm going to tell you _where_ I'm going to hit you. If you can't read my lips, you can't block the hit. Okay? Let's start, shall we?"

He began before she could even finish reading and send him a wary glance. "I'm going to hit you on your left shoulder," he said seconds before he reached out to tap her powerfully on her left shoulder. She stumbled suddenly, dropping from the branch she had just landed on.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she screeched as she fell to the branch below, managing to land correctly.

Naruto and Sasuke, hearing her screech, turned around in alarm and confusion at the ongoing. Kakashi had landed next to her and hit her on her right shoulder.

"Oi!" Naruto yelled. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"Training!" was the cheerful reply. "Sakura, I'm going to send a jolt of electricity into your left knee. Block my right arm."

She couldn't understand and felt her knee jerk uncontrollably suddenly.

"Are you crazy?! Stop that! She can't hear you!"

T-H-A-T-S T-H-E P-O-I-N-T O-F T-H-E T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G, he felt Sasuke write quickly into the palm of his hand. He did not relax and instead searched for a hint of Sakura's chakra. It was motionless on a branch a few meters behind them, and Kakashi's chakra was quickly advancing on her.

S-T-O-P W-O-R-R-Y-I-N-G.

Naruto tried to relax, knowing that Kakashi would never let Sakura get hurt. The thought did not help his instinctive reaction to the gasp of surprise he suddenly heard from his female teammate. With a forced sigh, he turned around to follow the Uchiha whose chakra traces were beginning to fade from the trees.

"Read, Sakura," Kakashi commanded his student as they took off into the trees again. "You have to learn quickly in a battle. Pretend you're analyzing the enemy's jutsu tactics. What seals does he use? How does he use them? Think quickly and analyze my facial movements. I'm speaking to you right now. What am I saying?"

Sakura set her jaw, clenching her teeth in determination. She did not focus on predicting Kakashi's moves, but rather on the movement of his lips, trying to notice the quirks.

"Say 'avocado'," she told him as he hit her on the arm.

Kakashi shook his head. "Don't try to manipulate your enemies," he told her. "They're not going to obey what you say. Figure out a different tactic. Do something –"

She slapped him across the face.

Just before the puff of smoke, before the clank of the replacement log, she took a good look at his facial expression. The surprise at the unexpected slap had sent his eyes wide. He had let out an astonished "Ah!" that opened his mouth and wrinkled his mask at the sides of where she assumed his lips to be.

"Bingo," she said with a devious smile. "One vowel."

She couldn't hear his laughter, but she knew he was drowning in amusement as he appeared in front of her, clapping his hands.

"You sneaky little devil," he said, more confident in his words knowing Sakura could not hear him. "I expected a hit to the gut, but not a girlish smack to the face."

"It's like a cryptogram," she told him when she assumed he had finished speaking. "If I get one letter, I can get them all eventually."

"It's too bad Naruto's missing all this action. If he'd seen you slap me, he would never let me live it down. Oh, and I'm going to hit you on your left arm."

Sakura blocked his hit.

He was not surprised.

"How did you know?" he asked.

As if anticipating the question, she smiled triumphantly. "You used the vowel I'd just gotten out of you. Since you aren't attacking anything out of the ordinary, like certain arteries, and you call the abdomen the 'gut' when you talk, I assumed you were going to attack my arms. And since you've been pretty inclined to the left side of my body, I thought it was safe to say that you'd attack my left arm."

"I'm impressed, Sakura." Kakashi was not lying. The feeling he got whenever someone mastered something he'd taught him or her, whenever they surprised him, whenever he could call himself a sensei was not a feeling he would ever forget. And he was feeling it right now. "You've really grown."

He did not miss the glance she sent at the boys that were merely specks in the distance now.

Naruto was behind Sasuke by a single branch. He turned to him suddenly, a twisted frown on his face. "I know you're really tired." When Sasuke did not reply, he continued. "Are you still feeling sick?"

Sasuke shook his head pointlessly. He knew Naruto knew it was a lie, but the blond dropped it. Sasuke thought the Apocalypse was coming – Naruto had dropped a subject? The blond usually went at it until Sasuke was forced to punch him.

"So how do you think the mission is going so far?" Naruto tried to strike up conversation instead.

Sasuke did nothing.

The blond sighed. "Why'd you have to be the mute one?"

Nonetheless, the silence continued for a while. There was the occasional faint sound of a gasp or a puff of smoke from behind them, but other than that, silence. Not even the birds had bothered to wake up. There was no breeze to ruffle the leaves of the trees, no rushing water of the river, no local squirrel with an acorn. The forest was silent, and it was unnerving Naruto. There was nothing for him to listen to so that he could overcome the terror of the darkness that shot up from time to time. No distractions.

He concentrated on Sasuke's bursts of chakra and nothing else.

It went on like that for three long hours before Naruto finally collapsed onto a branch in exhaustion. Sasuke joined him, trying to mask the exhaustion that shook every bone in his body as he leaned against the trunk of the tree and panted harshly.

"I'm guessing it's time for a break."

Kakashi descended the branches, Sakura not too far behind. Sakura sported a small cut along her temple that she sat to heal.

"I need ramen . . ." Naruto moaned. "I need it to keep my energy up! Right, Sasuke?" He groped for the boy he heard to his right, snagging Sasuke around the hem of his pants on accident and pulling them down so that the edge of his boxers was visible.

Sasuke quickly slapped Naruto's hand away and pulled his pants back into place as Sakura turned away and Kakashi let out a bout of laughter.

"Okay, let's rest for a few minutes –"

"A few minutes?! Kakashi-sensei, I need an eternity!" Naruto flung himself against the branch of the tree and hugged it tightly. "Ramen . . ."

"Sasuke's not looking so great, either, but the town we need is only two hours from here. It's better to keep moving and rest over there without the danger of enemies."

"But you said that there won't be any enemies now since we're too far away."

"I said that there's a _possibility_ they won't be here."

"Kakashi-sensei . . ."

Sakura was staring into the distance. Kakashi frowned.

"I know."

Sasuke was suddenly staring into the distance as well, his eyes narrowed. Naruto felt the sudden shift of the atmosphere, but he could not draw enough energy to sense the chakra in the distance.

"What's going on?" he asked seriously.

"We've got company."

And just as Kakashi finished the sentence, a kunai embedded itself into the trunk inches away from Naruto's cheek. The blond rose with a start and stared around uselessly, adrenaline beginning to seep into his veins. Kakashi cursed inwardly; he had not been expecting visitors despite what he had told his students.

"There are three of them nearby," he said. "Another one is coming. Be careful."

He did not want them to engage in battle too soon. Sakura had not yet learned to detect her enemies without hearing. Naruto had not learned how to battle _at all_ without sight. And Sasuke was too weak to battle. This would not end well.

"Two of them are of Chunin level," Sakura said, focusing her energy on their traces. "One of them is a Jounin."

A flurry of kunais came through the trees. Naruto barely had enough time to dodge the sounds of whooshing air. He rolled off of the branch to land on the one beneath him, taking out a kunai of his own and staring in the direction he assumed the kunais had come from.

"I'll be right back," Kakashi said with a forced smile on his face before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. He was going to try and find the enemy before the enemy found his students.

Sasuke was trying his best to blink away the double images of the trees in front of him. He felt completely nauseated, his stomach threatening to return his breakfast, his head whirring with images moving too quickly for his liking. His eyes tried to make out the figures that moved quickly in the shadows.

And suddenly, he found himself pinned against the bark of a tree.

A woman stared down at him. Her Grass headband reflected in the poor lighting that came from the canopy of the trees, holding up the bangs of her short red hair. She sneered.

"You're a pretty one," she said, dangerously close to Sasuke's face. "A little hot in the literal sense. You sick, kid? And here I was, hoping you'd put up a good fight –"

Sasuke disappeared, and there was a sudden trickle of blood flowing down her legs. She whipped around to find the Uchiha on his knees, one hand on the kunai he had just embedded into her thigh. In anger, she let out a frustrated yell and sent a kick aimed at Sasuke's side. He caught her leg, but the force knocked him from the branch and he landed with a powerful _thud_ on his back.

Naruto was having troubles of his own. Exhausted, he could not bring himself to detect any chakras, and his knees shook as he strained to stand, kunai out in front of him for protection. A shadow danced around him and there a sudden rumbling from above. He turned to look up just before a rockslide came falling in his direction.

Unsure of what it was exactly that was falling, and where, Naruto quickly jumped to the side to where he assumed a branch stood waiting for him to land on.

There was no branch.

He yelled in surprise as his foot touched nothing and he began to fall through the air. His arms flailed desperately to grab onto anything, _anything_ to stop him from falling. His heart leapt in his chest. Where was he falling? How far off of the ground was he? Was there another branch? Terror ate away at his heart and he began to sweat profusely, hands still scrambling to grab for something.

A surge of pain flared up on his arm and his hand instinctively went to inspect it. Blood flowed freely from his fingers. Someone had cut him with a sharp object – a kunai? a sword? a shuriken? – and he was still falling.

Sakura was doing her best to fight a ninja of her own. He was a young male, covered from head to toe in camouflage. He battled with a short sword that Sakura had no problem dodging and retaliating. She sent a sudden punch he had assumed was aimed at his head, and when she missed, he smirked.

"Nice try, kitten," he said.

Sakura smirked, too.

And then the tree she had hit gave a sickening crack and began its fall to the ninja's body. He dived out of the way with moments to spare, but Sakura was right there to attack back, managing to land a punch in his gut that knocked the wind out of him and sent him hurtling to the floor.

And then, he disappeared.

Sakura yelled in frustration and averted her eyes to the next chakra presence she felt. It was the woman who had assaulted Sasuke. She stood over the fallen Uchiha with her short sword in hand, one foot on his gut as he lay motionless on his back. Sakura could see the violent shivering that wracked his frail body. She could see the swirl of his Sharingan as he tried to counter the attack, tried to do anything to show he wasn't weak, to show he wasn't pushed into a corner.

_"Aaaahhh!"_

The anguished cry erupted from below her, but Sakura did not hear it. She did not hear the sickening _schlup_ as the blade of a sword pierced Naruto's shoulder and pinned him to a tree branch. She did not hear the mocking voice of the ninja that had wounded him, teasing him, "Oh-hoh, he's _blind!_ A blind ninja! This is priceless!" And she did not hear the strangled yelp of pain that signaled Kakashi's return.

It wasn't he that had given the yelp of pain.

In an instant, Kakashi appeared on the floor beneath Sakura, dropping the Chunin she had just battled with on the ground, along with the unconscious body of the Jounin and a profusely-bleeding Naruto. In another flash of silver hair, the woman standing over Sasuke was gone and was now unconscious on top of the Jounin.

And Kakashi? Kakashi was livid.

Sakura descended to the floor just as Kakashi was laying Naruto flat-out of the grass. She gasped suddenly. The edge of a sword was plunged completely into the blond's shoulder. Naruto was gritting his teeth against the pain, flinching with every touch from Kakashi.

Kakashi caught Sakura's attention, pointed to Naruto, and pretended to pull the sword out as he pointed up to the trees. Sakura nodded in understanding and watched him shoot into the sky.

"Hey, Naruto," she said, her voice wavering slightly. "That was really unexpected, right? They just came out of nowhere."

"What are you talking about, S-S-Sakura?" Naruto managed to grind out. "Where's Kaka –"

His mouth opened in a silent scream.

Sakura had pulled the sword out when he had been distracted.

The sickening sound of the sword as it retreated from muscle and skin went unheard by Sakura as she quickly tossed the rod of metal to the side and began pumping chakra into Naruto's wound. She saw his mouth open again, tears of pain brimming his eyes, as he gave a scream of agony that she couldn't hear.

Kakashi appeared again with Sasuke's arm around his shoulders. He let the Uchiha slide onto the floor and then stood back to inspect Naruto's condition.

"This shouldn't have happened," he said more to himself than to his students. He was angry at himself. "You shouldn't have gotten hurt."

His sent his flaming glance at the stirring bodies set to the side, and at the snarling young man in camouflage.

"Stay away!" he cried. "Stay back if you know what's good for you! Or I'll kill you!"

Kakashi crouched down in front of him, trying to suppress the anger he harbored for himself. "Why don't you tell me why you attacked us," he said calmly. "And then I'll let you go."

The man struggled in his binds and kicked uselessly at Kakashi. "Stay back or else!"

Finding the entire situation futile, Kakashi turned to the body of the stirring Jounin who had attacked Naruto. He picked him up by the back of the shirt and pinned him against the base of the tree, shaking his head slightly to bring him back to reality.

"Hello there," he said casually, but his eyes were filled with the utmost of seriousness. "Nice day for a stroll."

The Jounin stared at him from heavily lidded eyes and said nothing. Kakashi suddenly held his hand firmly against the man's neck, his right hand crackling with ominous chakra. It illuminated the wide-eyed expression of the man in his grasp.

"Why were you attacking us?" he asked calmly. "You are from the Grass Village. We are not enemies."

"Eita! She's a medic-nin! Eita!" The young man to the side suddenly screamed as he tried to gesture wildly at Sakura. "She can help us!"

He stared desperately at where Sakura's blood-covered hands kneaded Naruto's broken flesh. Unhearing, she did not return his gaze.

"Tell us your situation," Kakashi pushed. "If you tell us why you attacked us, our medic-nin will assist you."

The Jounin, with the situation now changed, was quick to reply. "Our teammate was injured by some enemy," he spoke up. "She refuses to get up and if she doesn't get help soon, she'll die. We were afraid the enemy would return to get her before we could get her help."

"So you attacked us because you thought we were the enemy."

"They attacked from the shadows; they could look like anyone."

"Please," the young male said desperately to Sakura. "Please, please help her."

Kakashi released the Jounin and moved to tap Sakura on the shoulder. She looked up from where she attempted to nod and caught his gesture; he wanted her to follow them.

"But Kakashi-sensei, what about Naruto?" _And Sasuke_, her mind added unconsciously.

"Can you stand, Naruto? If you can't, don't push yourself."

Naruto smirked. "I'm fine, Kakashi-sensei," he said, but the wince he gave as he tried to stand said otherwise. He collapsed heavily against his sensei. ". . . As soon as I get all my blood back."

"Sasuke?" Kakashi called to his other student.

The Uchiha put one hand up lazily, indicating that he was fine. He, too, tried to stand on knees that would not support his weight. Kakashi sighed and slung Naruto's uninjured arm around his shoulders, holding the blond tightly by the waist. He motioned for Sakura to assist Sasuke.

Without a word, she _(reluctantly, right?)_ walked to the Uchiha.

"I'll help you," she whispered.

He jerked his arm from her grasp.

"Don't be so stubborn right now! These people need help, and the sooner we give it to them, the quicker you can get help, too."

Sasuke sent her a glare, but accepted her arm reluctantly. He stiffened when he felt her fingers at his waist.

"Show us the way," Kakashi instructed the Jounin.

The man picked up his unconscious female partner and led them away.

The short journey was rather awkward. Team 7 had been several meters away from where the attacking ninja had set up their camp. The leading Jounin stopped abruptly on a branch meters from the ground, looking down into a clearing. Two figures were crouched beneath the shade of a tree by the blankets strewn over the floor. One of them, the male, had his hands pressing into the side of the girl that was bent over, blood pooling at her knees.

"We brought help," Eita, the Jounin, announced to his friend as he placed the stirring female in his hands on one of the blankets littering the ground. "It's a long story, but this girl is a medic-nin."

Sakura let Sasuke slip from her grasp, his faint body heat fading as he collapsed onto the floor at her side, shivering subtly. She walked to the girl bent over to inspect her.

"Oh gosh," she whispered as her immediate diagnosis came to mind.

The girl, looking no older than thirteen years old, was shivering more violently than Sasuke had when he first came down with hypothermia. Blood poured sickeningly from a large wound in her side and a gash that was cut the diagonal of her chest. She was crying, Sakura saw. Crying violently and dry-retching from what Sakura suspected was the post affects of a series of vomiting.

"Lay her straight," Sakura immediately instructed. She removed the gloves she had been wearing covered in Naruto's blood and slid her hands into her pouch for a temporary pair. "What happened?"

"We were attacked by the enemy," the young man crouched by her replied. It took all of Sakura's effort to try and decipher his words from his foreign lips. "Kari just finished the academy and we were on our way to the town by here to celebrate, but we were caught by enemies of our village. They tried to take her down first."

Kari sobbed uncontrollably as she lay on her back. Her brown eyes did not close, tears welling at the pain as she moaned and sobbed in searing pain.

"M-make it s-s-stop," she choked out.

Sakura soothed back the long strands of brown hair from her face, trying to calm her. "Don't worry, okay?" she said with an assuring smile. "I'll be done in no time." She reached out with one blood-covered hand to grab the arm of the young man that had been at her side; she connected his hand to the hand of the girl. "Keep holding his hand. Don't let go. It'll be over soon."

Naruto watched with a sad smile on his face.

He stared into darkness, imagining Sakura concentrating on pumping chakra into the broken flesh of the frightened girl, imagining the sweat trickle down her forehead and dampening her unusually colored bangs, imagining the way her bare arms flexed with lean muscles. She was good with people, he thought. She could bring anyone together. And in turn, she cared for every living being that walked the Earth.

He frowned.

So what was wrong with her and Sasuke?

He averted his gaze to a random direction, unsure where Sasuke sat with his back braced against a tree, indifferent to the ongoing. The Uchiha didn't seem to even realize where he was; he simply sat with his eyes closed and his jaw slack, one arm over a bent knee.

Naruto turned back to stare in Sakura's direction again. He wondered if he was in some sort of shock. Here he was, a few minutes after having just been stabbed with a sword, watching blindly as the blood from a young girl probably poured over Sakura's chakra-glowing fingers. Something inside of him deflated and he suddenly felt depressed. Perhaps he had been a ninja for too long. He had seen too many things, killed too many people for this to affect him.

But why wasn't he worried about the girl?

He would usually be jumping from foot to foot in anticipation, yet he stared with a sort of disjointed presence at the situation. And then he smiled, despite everything going on. He knew why he wasn't worried.

Because Sakura was there.

Because she was the one healing the little girl. She was the one with her arms covered in blood, screaming things at the ninja around her, demanding bandages from her pouch, water for the girl, all the while smiling at Kari and telling her that everything was all right.

"Are you feeling well?"

He felt a hand on his uninjured shoulder and looked up, knowing the voice. He smiled reassuringly. "Yeah," he whispered. "Why?"

"She didn't get to finish healing your wound." He felt Kakashi crouch next to him and felt the ghost of a touch as the silver-haired man's fingers hovered over the frayed pieces of cloth around his shoulder. "And by the time she's done with this healing, she'll be too exhausted and chakra-deprived to continue."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" the blond said, pointing to himself. "I'm blind and the thing you're worrying about is a little shoulder wound?" He silenced for a while, hearing the strangled sob of Kari. "How does it look?"

"The wounds are pretty deep. Sakura closed the wound on her chest and is working on the one on her side, but the girl has a fever which can get pretty dangerous with blood loss. She'll need to be admitted into a hospital."

Naruto frowned and perked his ears for the ragged breathing of the Uchiha. "What about Sasuke?"

He felt what he assumed was Kakashi turning around for a quick glance. "He looks more tired than he'll admit and like he's about to throw up any second, but other than that, he's our usual Uchiha Sasuke."

_Not usual. Very different,_ the two of them unknowingly thought in unison.

"Can we sleep over in the next town?" asked Naruto suddenly, still staring in Sakura's direction. "We'll all be too exhausted to continue. Sakura's going to need her chakra, and Sasuke won't be completely healed if he doesn't stop and rest."

"The mission is top priority, Naruto."

Naruto sighed.

Sasuke was trying to block out the sobs of the girl. Every time she cried out in pain, every time she choked on her tears, every time she moaned in agony, Sasuke's shivers turned violent and he felt bile rise in his throat. He was not supposed to feel this sick. He was Uchiha Sasuke – Immune System Extraordinaire.

Or maybe Not-So-Extraordinaire.

Just as his head was threatening to split in two, he heard Sakura exclaim a weary, "I'm done!" He turned his head to see her smile tiredly, wipe the sweat from her brow with a bloodied arm, and begin to stand.

And suddenly, she was falling.

She had closed her eyes and was falling to the floor in a faint. And suddenly, Naruto was there. Sasuke didn't know how the blond saw her, didn't know how he knew where to throw his arms out and catch the girl, or even how he had managed to stand and meet her so quickly. All he saw was the split-second look in his eyes as he held the pink-haired girl in his arms – a look Sasuke had seen far too often. The Uchiha frowned.

_That poor idiot._


	4. Righteous

**Author's Note:** So yeah, it's been a while. Apologies? This chapter!

The plot is moving along now. I know the next chapter in particular is where the official mission begins. I focused a lot on feelings here, so feel them, and think about why they're there.

I didn't know I'd get this far with this story. Thank you so much, readers and reviewers!

**Chapter Four**  
…**:::Righteous:::…**

They were in a motel, now.

The ninja of the Grass Village that they had encountered had been thankful, picking up their healed partner in their arms and extending gratitude by offering to lead them to the nearest village via shortcut. They were all headed there anyway; Kari needed the hospital, and the team needed to restock.

Sakura woke quickly from her fainting spell. Kakashi, nonetheless, did not trust any of his students to be in the air and moving quickly through the trees in their conditions. They walked on foot to the nearest town which, through the shortcut, was much quicker than Kakashi had expected them to arrive.

The Grass ninja thanked them yet again, asking if there was anything they could do before they left. The ever-humble Kakashi shook his head and told them to hurry to the hospital. He led his tired team to a nearby motel instead and promised them an extra hour of rest than he had intended since they shaved off two hours from their arrival time.

They ate. Kakashi ordered each of his students into their separated rooms (Sakura alone, Sasuke and Naruto sharing, and Kakashi on his own) to wait until he checked up on them.

"This is an A-ranked mission," he said before they could leave. "I may no longer be your official sensei, but I am the leader of this team on this particular mission. It is my job to ensure that we put our full efforts into this mission. I don't want you to be tired or sick or whatever when we leave this town. You need to be on full alert; we are approaching the danger zone of where we may encounter actual enemies. I will also continue your one-on-one sessions when I come by to check up. Understood?"

He checked in on Sakura first, making sure to (pointlessly) knock out of programmed politeness. She lay tiredly on her futon. Her clothes had been changed (her previous attire washed) and her hands cleansed from any blood as they pillowed her head.

Kakashi told her to stay lying down; as the medic-nin, he thought, she needed to be the most rested of his students. He said he would simply do a few mouth-reading exercises with her. This, of course, was all written down on a card. She tried, nonetheless.

By the end of the lesson, Sakura could distinguish extremely short sentences.

Kakashi told her to "sleep, Sakura," and she understood, rolling over and pulling the blanket over her tired body. He had not even left the room before she was already asleep.

Sasuke and Naruto were on the verge of sleeping when Kakashi entered their room (without knocking). He moved to the Uchiha in the corner first since he seemed the most likely to sleep out of the two, and since he had big plans for Naruto.

"Your temperature is up," the silver-haired sensei told him when he rested a hand against Sasuke's forehead. "I've got medicine for that. But first, I want to get your one-on-one over with." He sat down, cross-legged, and spoke in hushed tones. "And it's not just about overcoming your disability. You're the one with the least trouble with that; you've easily figured out two ways of communication. I want to talk about your teamwork in this team."

Sasuke grimaced and laid his head on the pillow of the futon, suddenly dizzy.

"You get along just fine with Naruto," continued Kakashi. "You're even communicating with him. It's the relationship between you and Sakura right now that we need to fix. That, and your health."

He caught the pointed look the Uchiha gave him and quickly looked to his lips as they began to move.

_She's bent on making me miserable_, he said, his lips twisting into a frown. _I am officially nothing more than a traitor in her eyes. Don't bother. The old Sakura is gone, and so is the old Sasuke._

"If your relationship doesn't improve, I will be forced to intervene. And I will have my way, Sasuke."

Silence.

"I know she's being a bit stubborn, but try and imagine what it's like to be in her position. Think of the circumstances."

_Think of the way she felt about you. Think of what you did to her,_ he added mentally.

"I know you're tired. I'm going to give you medicine right now and I'll continue this when I feel the need to. And if you don't take care of yourself on this mission, I will be forced to baby you. I will feed you myself if I have to. If you don't want me to do that, take care of yourself. You're not a little boy anymore."

Sasuke mentally snorted.

He knew he wasn't a little boy. He was all grown up now. Bye-bye, childhood. Bye-bye, innocence and gullibility and carefree lifestyle. Hello, Hell.

Kakashi came back a moment later with a bitter-tasting liquid that Sasuke took with difficulty. His vomiting reflexes kicked in, but they thankfully died down when sleep was a greater priority than feeling good. He welcomed it, but it did not come. It never came. And so, he was forced to entertain himself by secretly listening to the conversation going on behind him.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said brightly without the slightest trace of weariness in his voice besides looking like he could collapse any second.

Kakashi frowned at the greeting. "I'm not your sensei anymore, Naruto. Stop adding that suffix."

The blond mimicked his frown, cocking his head to the side as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You never minded before." And then, immediately sensing an air of discomfort, he said, "What's wrong?"

A sigh. "The first thing I want to tell you is that I am very, very sorry for what happened."

Naruto's frown deepened. "Kakashi-sensei, that wasn't your fault –"

"As your team leader_,_ I should not have let you get hurt. Especially since you're blind." Kakashi stood against the wall in front of Naruto, eyes filled with the utmost seriousness, expression beneath his mask obviously discontent. "You were not ready to go into battle and I was not there to defend you. I did not teach you how to fight with your disability. I did not take the time to help you. And in that aspect, at that time, I was a failure of a sensei."

"Kakashi-sensei, stop saying that!" Naruto grew angry at the guilt Kakashi harbored. "We were all tired. Even you're tired – and don't pretend you're not! I might not be able to see you, but I can hear you – yet you're using every ounce of energy your energy to take care of us until the last second. What happened back there was an accident. We didn't know we'd be attacked." He fingered the newly-wrapped bandages around his shoulder and suddenly smiled. "You should get some sleep, too. Your students aren't the only ones that need rest."

He could tell Kakashi was smiling, too.

"You're really something, Naruto," he said. "You can connect with anyone."

_So connect with Sasuke._

Naruto seemed to understand. He quietly thanked his sensei – still his sensei – and sat with his back against the wall. "I'll be the one checking up on you in a few minutes. If you're not asleep, I'll make you pay for my ramen dinner."

"Yes, sir," Kakashi said mockingly. "But first, are you feeling any pain?"

"It's pretty much numbed."

"Good. Because the first thing I'm doing when we head off again is training you to battle with your disability. So you get some good rest, too."

"You first!"

Sasuke, facing the wall, heard Kakashi leave the room. He closed his eyes to try and enter sleep, but something quickly caught his attention. He could hear Naruto moving towards him. He felt the blond's breath on his neck, the hot words tickling his skin as he spoke.

"You know, she really loved you," he said.

Sasuke did not turn to look back.

"_I know."_

_

* * *

_

Two hours later, they were up and out.

Kakashi woke his students with much difficulty. Sakura was still sluggish, the drained feeling still tingling her body; Sasuke's temperature and shivering had completely died down to leave him with aching muscles (he had never gone to sleep and did not pretend to have done so); Naruto had gotten little sleep from the throbbing pain in his shoulder that he spoke not of. Kakashi stopped to talk them seconds before they had been about to jump into the trees.

"Our next town is six hours away. We'll make it just before nightfall and spend the night there." He turned his attention to the blond wincing a few feet from him. "Naruto, I'll be working with you while Sakura and Sasuke lead the way."

Sasuke raised a slender eyebrow when Kakashi suddenly turned to him with a strip of black cloth in his gloved hands.

"I want you to put this around your mouth," the silver-haired man said. "You're going to train Sakura."

_No. Absolutely not!_ the Uchiha's mind screamed at his sensei. _Are you crazy?_ He glared, shaking his head ever-so-slightly. Sakura, watching from afar, had no idea what Sasuke was so adamantly against.

"Do it, Sasuke," Kakashi urged with seriousness lacing his voice. "Do not have me report you to Tsunade-sama."

Sasuke knew Kakashi would never report him. Even if Sasuke walked away then and there, Kakashi would never report him. So what was it that guided his hand to grab the strip of degrading cloth and tie it around his lower face? What was it that made him wait so patiently as Kakashi tried to explain to Sakura what was going on without a prewritten index card?

He caught the look Naruto was sending him and turned away quickly.

"Now then," Kakashi said cheerfully. "Let's head out!"

Naruto could not help the lurching feeling in his stomach as he took to the trees after Sasuke's chakra, finding the Uchiha's chakra dangerously close to Sakura's. He had heard Kakashi's instructions, and he trusted his sensei and his teammate to make rational decisions.

But what if Sasuke got carried away?

The blond could sense some sort of strong hatred between his teammates. What if Sasuke took advantage of the fact that he could hit Sakura without her blocking his moves?

"Relax."

Kakashi's whisper came from his left. Naruto turned in his general direction, confused; he had always been suspicious that Kakashi could read minds, but this was ridiculous.

"Sakura's not going to let Sasuke hit her. When she was training with me, she didn't care if I managed to get a punch in. But now she's training with Sasuke. She'll be more determined to try and read his lips so that she can prove herself to him."

Naruto let out a melodic tinkle of laughter. "That's smart. I didn't expect that from you," he teased.

"That hurt. Now I'm going to go twice as hard on you as I intended."

"Hey! No fair!"

But Naruto knew Kakashi was smiling.

It was the tone of this voice – something Naruto had managed to pick up in his unnerving darkness. There was a higher pitch to Kakashi's voice when he was smiling in good nature. Naruto smiled, too, just to forget the fear that would not go away.

"I want you to think of a good tactic for fighting while you're blind," he heard Kakashi say from his right. "Think carefully, and use what you have."

Naruto thought.

He had shadow clones, but what good were a hundred unseeing eyes?

_Use what you have._

He had Rasengan, but what good was a direct technique when he couldn't see his target?

_Use what you have._

So Naruto thought. And thought. He had ears, he deduced. Ears and clones. And poor chakra sensing. He did not think anything of the tools at hand for a while, his eyebrows furrowed as he thought deeply. He managed to miss a branch on accident in his intense concentration. Kakashi's hand closed around his wrist and yanked him back up.

"You've got to think quickly, Naruto."

"I've got to concentrate on chakra senses," was his automated reply. "I can't do two things at once . . ."

And then, it clicked.

If he had a hundred unseeing eyes, that meant he had a hundred heightened ears. That meant fifty minds working on chakra sensing. That meant he had a solution.

He smiled suddenly, and Kakashi immediately knew he had found an answer. The question was: could it work?

Naruto put his hands together to summon a dozen of his clones, each one of them maneuvering through the trees, their minds all focused on chakra sensing. He isolated five of his clones and gathered them in a close circle around where he and Kakashi were jumping.

"If we each concentrate on a single part of the enemy's body, we can get his entire body mapped out in chakra."

"Yeah," Kakashi said idly, reaching one hand out to skim the leaves of the trees as he passed them. "But what can you possibly do with that information? What if there's more than one enemy? They'll be sure to detect you with all those sparks of chakras from the clones."

Naruto smiled.

"I've got a team with me," he said confidently. "They'll never let me down."

Kakashi replied without missing a beat. "Do you really have a team yet, Naruto?"

The blond's saddened eyes wandered over to where Sasuke and Sakura, mere specks in the distance, had yet to begin communicating. "Yeah, we're a team," he whispered, his confidence shied away. "We just don't remember it yet."

Sakura was furious. And guilty. But she let her frustration overpower her guilt so that she could clear her mind to focus on a single target: proving herself to Sasuke.

No, scratch that.

She didn't have to prove herself to him, she thought. Why would the opinion of a traitor matter?

Her eyes narrowed when she saw him turn his head in her direction. She saw the wrinkling of the cloth around his mouth as he spoke; she barely had time to register what he was going to say before his hand shot out and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

_A tap?_

She caught his next sentence: _Your right arm. _His hand moved at a surprisingly slow speed, fingers pointed to tap her on her arm. She effortlessly twisted her arm around his and pushed him away to land on a nearby branch.

_What's with these stupid taps?_

"That's weak," she taunted, a foreign smirk slithering onto her face. "Kakashi hit me like he meant it. You've got to come at me like you're trying to kill me. That shouldn't be too hard, should it?"

_Shut up, shut up, shut up, Sakura!_ She screamed at her stupidity in her head. She hadn't meant to say that. Or maybe she did. Maybe she wanted to anger the Uchiha.

Or maybe she didn't.

Sasuke seemed unaffected, his eyes staring strangely at her as his foot met the next branch and he thrust off into the air. Sakura watched his actions warily, waiting for the slightest movement of his mouth.

_Can you understand me?_ he asked her.

No insults. No bites of sarcasm.

She was surprised.

When had their personalities switched roles? Sakura mentally reviewed her words; she rarely used sarcasm. Why had she used it now?

Sasuke suddenly disappeared from in front of her. In surprise, she stared at the empty spot where his body had been moments before, her mouth slightly open in confusion. It wasn't until she felt a tap to the back of her neck did she realize that Sasuke had moved behind her.

He was testing her reflexes without speech. Because really, what kind of enemy told his opponent where he would attack?

_ And what kind of stupid enemy hit so lightly?_

She kept herself on her toes, moving from foot to foot in anticipation for his next attack. She told herself she was obviously at a disadvantage; she could not hear the faintest rustle of the leaves or change in wind currents. All she could do was look out for the slightest movements that would indicate where Sasuke was.

But she didn't know Sasuke had come to be inhumanly capable at disguising his movements.

He came from her left and tapped her on the shoulder and she was honestly surprised, having not seen even the slightest rustle of tree leaves. How had he done that? He disappeared again, reappearing behind her with a hand outstretched to poke her in the side. What was going on?

Kakashi watched the ongoing in the distance with a frown.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, sensing the sudden change in mood. He glanced curiously at Kakashi, his unseeing eyes moving rapidly back and forth in an unconscious attempt to focus on something.

"Sasuke's being too stealthy when attacking Sakura." Before Naruto could burst into an angry rant at the Uchiha's advantages, Kakashi quickly continued. "He's not doing it on purpose. It's not like he wants to hurt her or anything; he's been tapping her very lightly and has been going at speeds he normally wouldn't attack at, and I think that's frustrating Sakura."

Kakashi leapt in front of Naruto so the blond could focus on his chakra traces as he continued to explain the situation.

"Sasuke's trying to test Sakura's sensing ability without having to speak to her, so he's appearing randomly and lightly tapping her. But he doesn't know he isn't giving off any clues as to where he might be."

"What do you mean?"

Naruto scrunched his face pointlessly into the distance as if he could magically make his vision appear again.

"If the average person maneuvers through the trees, he leaves hints of his position, like the sound of movement through the leaves, or – in Sakura's case – the movement of shadows or branches. But Sasuke's not giving off any of those signals."

"So he's trying to trick Sakura?"

Kakashi shook his head. "It's more like he's been programmed to do it."

Naruto frowned at this. How could Sasuke possibly be programmed to do something? He crossed his arms over his chest, eyes traveling to the burst of chakra on a nearby branch from where Kakashi had just rocketed from.

"You're not helping!" Sakura chided the Uchiha after he managed to hit her for the ninth time. "You're not supposed to try and knock me off course by hiding every movement you do; you're supposed to help me find a way to harness my senses."

Sasuke turned to stare at her in midair, a puzzled look crossing his features. He seemed to be deep in thought for a few minutes as his brows furrowed and his eyes averted to the blur of green beneath him. Sakura watched his eyes glow in realization.

The Uchiha shook his head suddenly, but he offered no explanation. He simply disappeared again. This time, Sakura saw the exaggeration of rustled tree leaves. She grew frustrated.

First, he had hidden his movements, and now, he exaggerated them as if she had been blind not to notice them. What did he take her for?

But she quickly thought this over before she blurted anything out; she did not want a repeat of what had happened that morning. Her face burned at the memory and she shook the thoughts away to focus on her original problem.

_Had Sasuke been so used to hiding his movements that he had to intentionally show them?_

Now was not the time to contemplate and let feelings take over. Sasuke managed a light hit beneath her chin; she should have seen that coming, she chided herself. She grew agitated. Determined. When Sasuke came to hit her, she retaliated with enthusiasm, thrusting him backwards into a nearby tree despite the weariness that laced her body.

Surprised at the force, Sasuke did not move for a few moments, before he smirked. So she wanted to play that game, huh? He disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing seconds later above Sakura, poised in a kicking position. Sakura saw his movement from the corner of her eyes and reached above her to grab onto his foot and swing his body around, chucking him into the distance.

Oh, it was on.

Kakashi focused on Naruto, the action in the distance going unseen. He continued with the whiskered boy's training.

"You're going to work on focusing on my body's chakra, are you?" When Naruto nodded, he reached out to smack the blond upside the head.

"Oi!" Naruto yelled in annoyance, rubbing the side of his head. "I wasn't ready!"

"I'm the enemy, Naruto. You've got to keep on your toes at all times. I don't believe an enemy ninja will tell you where he will hit you."

And just to get his point across, he moved to hit Naruto on his good shoulder.

But Naruto was quicker.

He narrowly avoided the hit with a rough duck of his body, accidentally slipping from the branch to the one below. But he had dodged the blow, and that was all he needed to dance in glee when he felt he had safely balanced on a branch. Kakashi watched with a proud glimmer in his eye before disappearing in a puff of smoke and reappearing under Naruto's feet to grab his ankles with one hand.

One of Naruto's clones had sensed this, disappearing as well to alert the original. Naruto quickly jumped from the branch and moved forwards to another one in an attempt to elude his now-reading sensei with little success. Kakashi managed to latch onto the hem of his pants and pin him to the branch.

"Focus harder, Naruto. You not only need to locate me, but you need to think about _where_ you're going to move to next. Use what you can to try and locate my hand and I want you to focus on the tree you'll move to at the same time."

He reached out to strike Naruto's good shoulder. Naruto, however, had squirmed out of the way in prediction of the attack.

And had lost his footing.

And down, down Naruto went, too close to the ground for Kakashi to stop him, and too far for the fall not to hurt. His eyes widened as the full extent of the pain flared up in his bandaged shoulder. His fingers instinctively jumped to grasp the wound; warm blood flowed through his fingers, running down the back of his hand in crimson rivulets to pool at his wrist before the droplets raced down his arm to his elbow.

All he felt was pain. He thought he might have blacked out. Was he still on the ground? He wasn't sure if he had passed out, or if he had simply remained in the frightening oblivion he had been forced into. What were those annoying drones buzzing around him? Voices? Why wasn't the Kyuubi inside of him helping him heal?

He realized he had, in fact, momentarily blacked out because he had realized, seconds later, that he was propped up against the base of a tree, and someone was lightly slapping his cheeks. The voice in front of him was dimmed as if gibberish, before finally becoming coherent.

"Nshhraturato . . . can you hear me? Hold on."

The same voice – Kakashi's, he realized – silenced and there was suddenly an unbearable pain coming from his shoulder. Naruto suppressed his scream in his throat, transforming it into a gurgle as he felt fingers dig into his shoulder in an attempt to stop the blood flow.

"I'm all right, Kakashi," he tried to say. He knew it would heal soon with the chakra bubbling inside of him. He bent his knees in an attempt to rise from the floor, but a hand on his good shoulder prevented him from moving any further.

"We have to stop," Kakashi's voice came from the right. "You can't go on like this. I'll get Sakura to heal you fully this time, and we'll slow our pace for an hour or so."

"No!"

Naruto turned fruitlessly in Kakashi's direction, his face contorted in a frown and a grimace of pain. Once again, he tried to bring himself to his feet, bracing himself against the gnarled trunk of the tree.

"I can still carry on. Just bandage it and I'll be fine until we reach the next village. It's no big deal, really."

"If you could see it, you'd realize that it's a bigger deal than you think," he heard Kakashi continue. "The wound will get infected in this kind of weather, and your entire arm is covered in blood. It looks pretty bad, Naruto."

Naruto was getting impatient. "Don't stop their training for me, Kakashi-sensei. Please."

Understanding was suspended in the air of the silence that ensued. Kakashi's alert expression softened and he eased Naruto back against the tree without much protesting from the blond. "You don't want to be the burden," he said as a statement rather than a question. He vaguely remembered the first mission they had gone on together, to the Land of the Waves, where Naruto had been exposed to poison and had stabbed his hand in an attempt to draw the poison from his blood.

"Come on, Naruto," he continued, fixing the bandages around his student's – no, teammate's? – shoulder.

"I would take advantage of the fact that we have a medic-nin on our team. She's trained herself in that area for a reason. Don't always think about the present; think of the future, too. We might have to slow ourselves down now, but if you continued with a wounded shoulder, you'd be worse for wear if we ever encounter an enemy. Or it'd get infected, and then think about how much time it would take to heal an _infected_ wound."

Naruto stayed silent, his unseeing eyes averted to his hands. Kakashi knew he had understood. He knelt in front of Naruto to pat his knee reassuringly.

"I'm going to bring Sakura and Sasuke back here, and then we'll reevaluate things, okay?"

Naruto nodded in silent agreement. He waited until Kakashi left before he released what had been bothering him.

He sent his fist hurtling into the tree behind him. The trunk splintered with the intensity of the force. Naruto slumped back into a sitting position, tears prickling at his sightless eyes, his teeth gritted, and rivulets of blood sliding down his bruising hand.

"Damn it!" he ground out.

He hated being blind.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at Sasuke, a playful smirk quirking her lips as she prepared herself for the next blow. Sasuke, his face emotionless, disappeared.

And Kakashi reappeared.

Surprised, Sakura opened her mouth in a silent gasp and took a step backwards – still in the air. She landed with wobbling feet onto a branch below and stared as Kakashi descended in front of her.

"Naruto," she read off of his lips, "is hurt."

He gestured to his shoulder, and Sakura understood. She nodded her head, her mind vaguely wondering where Sasuke had disappeared to. As if to answer her question, Sasuke appeared at Kakashi's side, pocketing the kunai he had taken out and removing the strip of cloth from his face, eyes slightly widened in alert.

Sakura followed Kakashi without another word to a miniature clearing several meters behind. Her hurried _shish-shish-pop-pop_ of footsteps signaled her arrival to Naruto. His head of blond perked in her direction, sightless eyes wide.

"It's me, Naruto," she tried to clarify when she was near. She saw his shoulders relax and saw the regret etched into his face when the pain in his shoulder flared once more.

He smiled suddenly. "Sorry," he managed to grit out, feeling her fingers ghost over his wound. "I didn't want to stop your training."

_It wasn't that important,_ she had been about to comment offhandedly, but she bit her bottom lip to stop herself, turning around to steal a glance at Sasuke. He was staring at her, too. Neither turned away.

Sakura finally averted her eyes back to Naruto. What had their training session been? She had learned significantly from a traitor, she thought to herself. He had trained her as if she had been his teammate, not his enemy. Like his equal.

The opposite way Sakura had been treating him.

Like he was below her.

Like he _should've_ been below her.

She tried to steady her hands as she worked on unwrapping the gruesome wound that was Naruto's shoulder.

* * *

They made it to the next town just before nightfall, as Kakashi had suspected. Training had only continued an hour before they had made it to the town; Sakura's chakra, drained, did not allow her to hold up well in an intense training session with Sasuke, and Naruto could not focus on training and chakra traces at the same time with his blood loss.

Kakashi informed them that their next town, three hours away, would be their last spot before they would travel to the enemy's base for infiltration (another four hours away). And so they sat in their rooms after a silent meal at a ramen stand and showers, preparing to sleep.

Naruto scooted close to Sasuke, his blanket wrapped around his shoulders. There was no moon out to pour its light through the windows and so they sat in the dark, side-by-side, the cold biting at their bare toes. Naruto could smell the strong earthy scent from the proximity; Sasuke, despite taking a shower, smelled strongly like the leaves of the forest, like the damp earth, like the morning dew. Natural. Naruto vaguely wondered what his own body smelled like.

"I really wish you'd get along with Sakura," he whispered, and then waited. Sasuke made no move to grab his hand. "She's really hurt. You've got to talk it out."

_She shouldn't be so damn selfish,_ Sasuke said to himself, trying to turn away from the persistent blond.

"I know you're tired, and I'm tired, so I'll drop it for today, but one day, you'll regret this."

Naruto did not scoot away from him, and a part of Sasuke was grateful. He could feel the warmth radiating from Naruto's body, soothing his own cold flesh. The other part of Sasuke felt uncomfortable at the guilty proximity. He shut that part off and closed his eyes, hoping that he'd sleep.

He couldn't.

And this time, the reason wasn't because of the torture he'd experienced.

* * *

Sakura was suddenly up in alert at the sight of shattered glass.

She had been turned on her side, facing the open doorway in her inability to fall asleep. Thoughts after thoughts had plagued her mind and so her eyes stared blankly ahead of her, until their attention was caught by the sight of little tinkering, shining shards of something. Glass, she deduced. Reflective glass. Her eyes widened in curiosity and alarm, holding her breath for more clues as to where the glass came from.

It had come from the end of the hallway, she decided – where the bathroom was; the motel they were in had a separate bathroom for each floor. Someone was in there, shattering what she presumed was the mirror. Without hesitation, she tore the blankets from her body, slipped into her slippers and a robe, and stealthily ran to peak her head into the hallway.

Had no one else seen the glass? Had no one heard the shattering of the mirror? Perhaps only she could potentially hear it. Her room was the closest to the bathroom. Kakashi's was on the other end of the hall, and Naruto and Sasuke's was next to his.

So what . . .?

Sakura tucked in a strand of hair behind her ear as she tiptoed to the bathroom and peeked through the door that stood ajar, a sliver of scenery showing through.

Sasuke was in there.

His hair was drenched, falling in thick strings over his eyes to meet his chin; from the back, it reached past his shoulders. Sakura could see his wild, wild eyes from behind the curtain of obsidian. She could see the fatal grip his bleeding hands had on the edge of the sink as he stared into what had once been a mirror. And she could see the heave of his chest as he breathed harshly through his nose.

She was frozen in uncertainty.

She couldn't ask him what was wrong. Their relationship at that point did not allow for normal converses; the normal Sasuke would have simply brushed her off as well. So speaking to him was futile.

But what if he did something irrational?

What if he left? Why was he angry? Surely Kakashi had heard – he heard _everything_. But what could they do? She moved so that she was no longer staring into the bathroom, her lithe body pressed against the wall as she thought. No decision was ever made, however. Sasuke left the bathroom seconds later, closing the door behind him, giving no indication that he had ever noticed Sakura's presence.

She watched with wide eyes as he reentered his room and quietly closed the door.

It was not the first time in her life that she felt useless. Sakura pushed herself off of the wall and reentered her own room, a heavy, unidentifiable emotion resting on her shoulders and never leaving, even as she slept.

* * *

Naruto woke up to the sun and immediately knew something was wrong. He called it a sixth sense. He could always tell something was wrong, except when his milk was expired; there were some things that eluded even him. He reached out in front of him to feel for where Sasuke had once been.

No one.

Rising to his feet, he padded across the wooden floor. There was something peculiar littering the ground that he could not see, but his bare feet certainly felt. It was an unfamiliar sensation, something he had never walked over before.

He bent to the floor, feeling what he thought were pieces of coarse silk running through his fingers. In an act of boldness, he lifted the thin strands to his nose and inhaled deeply. A familiar scent wafted through his nostrils; he felt a pang of nostalgia. Where had he smelled such an earthy aroma before? Such a powerful scent of the natural forest?

Sasuke.

He sniffed again at what he now knew were strands of hair. The same earthy aroma met his nostrils and he anxiously ran the strands through his fingers. They were long and chopped at odd angles, he could feel. Something was wrong.

Had the enemy gotten to him?!

"Sasuke!" he called desperately, dropping the hair from his fingers in favor of running his hands over the walls. He flailed his arms in the room, his bare feet stepping on what he could feel to be more strands of the coarse silk. His heart pounded wildly in his chest. Why wasn't Sasuke responding?!

"Sasuke!"

He felt a cold hand grab his wrist suddenly and he instinctively swung his other arm. Another cold hand caught his oncoming fist.

"Sasuke?"

A flick to the ear.

Yeah, it was Sasuke.

Naruto tentatively reached his hands out when Sasuke released them. His fingers grazed familiar coarse silk and suddenly tightened around the shortened strands.

"What did you do?" he asked, his fingers still running through Sasuke's hair.

Uncomfortable and annoyed, Sasuke shifted his head away and began to write in Naruto's palm. G-E-T-T-I-N-G T-O-O L-O-N-G.

"Why didn't you just wait until one of us woke up? We could've done it for you. Okay, maybe not me, because I'd probably cut your eyes out, but at least Kakashi would've helped you! And you guys call _me_ the hasty one."

He did not see Sasuke's obvious shift in expression, did not see the way his shoulders shook in anger, the way his eyebrows furrowed.

But when Naruto left for the bathroom, he _did_ feel the shards of broken glass scattered all over the bathroom sink.

He had been about to get angry. He had been about to turn right out of that bathroom, glass shards in hand, to scream at Sasuke and throw the fragments in his face. But he thought about it for a moment. He was tired of being reckless.

Long hair. Anger. Uchiha.

Itachi.

Sasuke thought he looked like Itachi.

Long hair and lines across the face were, perhaps, the only things that separated the Uchiha siblings from looking exactly alike from a distance. Or at least to Sasuke, they did. He had been afraid to have his hair continue growing. Naruto didn't know how long it had gotten, but he could remember it had reached past his chin when he had last been able to see. Had Sasuke really been angry at such a simple thing?

He thought back for a few moments, to all the times he had ever seen Sasuke become as impulsive and reckless as Naruto was. And most of the moments, if not all, had to do with his brother. Itachi was the only one who could pull the boiling anger from within Sasuke's stomach and unleash it upon the world.

Naruto returned to the room where he heard Sasuke folding his futon in the corner. He sat on his own and cradled his legs to his chest, staring blankly in the Uchiha's direction.

"You know, you don't look anything like Itachi," he said casually. Perhaps he had said it too casually. He could almost hear the gritting of Sasuke's teeth, the sharp turn of his head as if asking Naruto what the hell he thought he was doing.

Naruto, ever the ignorant, brave fool, continued anyway. He conjured a mental image of the elder Uchiha, drawing his mind's eyes to the slightest features.

"I mean, come on. Your eyebrows are thicker than his freakishly girlish ones. Speaking of girlish, have you seen his eyelashes? Does he put mascara on them? They're _really_ long. It's weird."

He could hear Sasuke storming over to him.

"And his eyes." Naruto's voice softened. He felt Sasuke directly in front of him, his body radiating no warmth. He felt himself get picked up viciously by the front of his shirt, felt Sasuke's heaving breath on his face. "They're dead."

Felt Sasuke's intake of breath, the choke in his throat, the loosening of his shirt.

"They're not like your eyes. And his attitude – it's not like yours. He doesn't care about anyone. Anything. You . . . you care about us, right? About me? And Kakashi? And Sakura?"

Sasuke stared at the blond in front of him, his mouth open in disbelief. What was Naruto talking about? Why did he decide to speak of his brother _of all people?!_ What was he _doing?!_ He watched Naruto look right at him as if he wasn't blind then and there.

"You're nothing like your brother, Sasuke," the blond told him. "Even if you grow your hair to your ankles, you're never going to be like him."

How had he known?!

Sasuke's mind could not keep up with the whir of thoughts going on. He felt constricted. He felt suffocated. He needed to get out of the room.

How had Naruto known?!

He took another step back, shaking his head, all the anger he had taken out on the mirror returning and he was afraid he would use it the wrong way. He was afraid he would hit Naruto, the epitome of the sun that tanned his skin, that spun his hair. The epitome of all things good.

And here was Uchiha Sasuke, backed into a corner, the epitome of all things bad.

He ran his hands through his choppy strands of obsidian hair and bent over, eyes closed, unsure of which emotion to let out. He wanted to scream, to punch, to kick, to cry. Everything was going wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong . . .

"Sasuke!"

What . . .?

That had been Kakashi's voice. He opened his eyes. When had Kakashi come? And why was he on the floor? Naruto was bent over him with a worried expression on his face. Sasuke thought he must have looked confused, because Kakashi took pity on him and explained.

"You passed out a few minutes ago."

_Oh._

He steadily got to his feet, staring around with masked confusion. Sakura stood a little off to the side, her face unreadable as she looked away when Sasuke caught her staring. Kakashi clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder and left it there.

"Mission time," was all he said. That was it. No "your health is deteriorating" or "we need to talk." Just a simple implication that they needed to get moving and that Sasuke was the only thing preventing them from doing so.

Sasuke wondered what Kakashi had up his sleeve.

He fell back with the silver-haired man when they were out and about the trees again, the early morning atmosphere bringing rushes of fresh air into his lungs every time he took off from another branch. Kakashi had his nose buried in his infamous book as he maneuvered through the forest. Sasuke had to tap him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"_Are you not questioning me because you're not my sensei anymore?"_ he mouthed to the older man.

Kakashi looked at him for a few moments before his eyebrows furrowed. "I like to consider myself a teammate, Sasuke," he said evenly. "Just because I'm not your sensei doesn't mean I don't care about your health. As a teammate, you have to care about your fellow teammates."

Sasuke tried to look annoyed. "_But you didn't ask about my health."_

"Because I knew you wouldn't answer in front of Sakura and Naruto." He gave Sasuke a mockingly arrogant smirk. "As a teammate, Sasuke, you must know your fellow teammates and their quirks." Before Sasuke had the chance to glare at him, Kakashi cocked his head to the side, smiled, and said in an intentionally sing-song voice, "So . . . why did Naruto run into my room in panic telling me that you'd passed out?"

_Is that what happened?_ Sasuke grumbled mentally, turning to face the path, watching Sakura lead the way with Naruto behind her. He did not reply, keeping his eyes staring ahead.

"Mm . . . you're not going to answer, are you?"

Silence.

"That's okay. I think I have a pretty good guess."

Silence.

"Your hair is uneven, by the way."

Sasuke twitched, picking up his pace to increase the distance between him and his former sensei. Kakashi thought otherwise.

"Hey, hey. You can't stray too far. It's your turn for a one-on-one."

"_I don't need a one-on-one. Not being able to speak does not hinder my fighting skills."_

"I didn't say anything about your fighting skills," Kakashi continued to chirrup. "You shouldn't assume, Sasuke, because you know what that makes out of you~!"

"_Cut the act!"_

Sasuke suddenly wished his voice had not disappeared. He wanted to scream his frustrations at Kakashi, to tell him to stop joking around, to be serious for once in his life because these were _not_ joking matters, to –

"Hit me."

Sasuke lost his footing for a millisecond in surprise. He raised a slender eyebrow at his former teacher, still seething inwardly. _"What?"_

"You heard me, Uchiha."

Kakashi pushed Sasuke roughly with one hand.

"Hit. Me."

Naruto turned around suddenly, eyes wide in fear as he suddenly heard a large explosion behind him where Sasuke and Kakashi should have been. Sakura turned with him out of curiosity and was surprised to find a cloud of dust where a tree had just fallen.

"What's going on?" she whispered in shock, managing to turn to Naruto as he said, "I was going to ask you that!"

"Is there an enemy attacking?" the blond continued, straining his chakra to get a better visualization of the area.

"No, Kakashi's training with Sasuke – but what are they _doing_?!"

Another explosion was heard, followed by a guttural grunt from close by. Sakura saw shadows through the trees flit by; Kakashi's figure became distinct first before he jumped from her view, followed by a very angry Sasuke with chidori sparking at his pale fingers. Sakura, in alarm, instinctively moved forward with full intention of stopping the fight, but Naruto blocked her.

She was surprised. Naruto had sensed her movement and had known when to stop her. A small smile betrayed her facial expressions and she turned to see him speaking to her, his warm hand still closed around her arm.

_". . . said not to stop him_," he said. _"They're having their one-on-one. He wants us to continue forward."_

They called that a one-on-one?! Sakura closed her eyes briefly, conjuring up Sasuke's recent image, the chidori lighting up his face of pure anger in a terrifying shock of electricity. She hesitantly turned away, using every ounce of effort not to turn back at the shaking ground from what she assumed was another hit.

When they reached the town, one hour less than they had expected, Naruto and Sakura stood at its entrance path, waiting for Sasuke and Kakashi to appear. The duo did, one with ruffled clothing and a nick on the side of his neck, and the other panting lightly with a thin sheen of sweat on his porcelain body.

Kakashi wiped the blood from his neck with his gloved hand and stepped forward, smiling.

"Shall we?"

Naruto stared uneasily at Sasuke. The Uchiha met his eyes with an unwavering expression of indifference. Taken aback at the feeling of tension, Naruto nodded his head quickly and turned around; he didn't know why he was so uneasy. Perhaps it had been because Sasuke had been angry enough to kill, perhaps it had been because Kakashi had actually gotten hurt, or perhaps it had been because of the way Sasuke seemed absolutely unfazed at what he had done. Either way, Naruto did not listen entirely to what Kakashi was saying as they walked through the quiet village; he did not take in the green, green scenery, the close clutter of identical homes, the butterflies that flew in waves of color.

They stopped at a restaurant and took a private booth in its corner, where Kakashi told Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto to order whatever they wanted.

Ever modest, Sakura ordered a smallish, inexpensive meal; Kakashi ordered another plate for her with a knowing twinkle in his visible eye.

Sasuke ordered water.

Kakashi told him that he wasn't going to get fat and that a glass of water actually had twenty calories in it, to which Sasuke shot him the dirtiest look he could muster and ordered a plate of the most expensive beef to smite his former sensei.

To which Kakashi told him he was paying.

Sasuke took back his order and asked for whatever Sakura was having, too apathetic to pick up the menu that had been laid out in front of him.

Naruto shook off his spell of uneasiness and ordered almost everything on the menu with a sneaky grin. Little did he know, when the blond turned around, Kakashi had told the waiter to take back almost everything except a few dishes. Normality was restored.

"Right," he began as they waited for their orders. "After this meal, we're going to stock up on a few things from the town's market place, and then we're going to head off to another house Yamato set up for us." He leaned forward on his elbows, fingers intertwined. "From here on, it gets dangerous."

His eye swept over his students, scrutinizing their conditions. Naruto, alert, without the slightest hint of weariness except the creases beneath his eyes that had appeared with the terror of blindness and the strain of searching for chakra traces. He sat with one leg bouncing up and down, his hands running over the pepper and salt shakers on the table to feel them before he began playing with them as if they were action figures. Sakura, only slightly weary, sitting quietly on the booth's bench with a serene smile on her face. She was folding a paper napkin into a creature of origami that Kakashi had yet to recognize. Sasuke, looking the most tired of the three, his shortened, choppy hair drooping and his too-thin figure hunched over a knee that he had drawn to his chest as he sat on the bench. He rested his head against the wall and stared at nothing in particular.

"We'll make it to the house, drop our things off, and then immediately set out to the hideout for observation. I've got it mapped out, but we'll need to watch the hideout for an hour to see the shift of the guards around it, or if they've even got guards at all," Kakashi continued, keeping his voice low. "Then we'll wait at the cabin for as long as we've got until darkness falls, and then we'll complete our infiltration with the cover of the night."

"We should do A-ranked missions more often," Naruto said with a smile. He pointed to his unseeing eyes. "Except without your twisted idea of training."

"Hey, it's worked so far, hasn't it? You've learned a lot in three days."

Naruto did not have a rebuttal for his sensei. Because he was right.

They struck up random conversation with a story Naruto had decided to tell about a day when he had encountered a talking fish. This conversation led to the topic of a magic talking dog, then to a talking parrot, then to the end of the world for one reason or another. Sakura had laughed so loudly at one point that Kakashi had reached over to clap his hands over her mouth, ignoring the nasty glances shot from people occupying the central bar. Sasuke had contributed absolutely nothing to the animated conversation between Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto. He hadn't even moved his head; his lackluster eyes simply watched them with a strange feeling growing in his gut, and he excused himself for the bathroom before the food came.

Kakashi was watching Naruto. The blond had piqued his interest the moment he had started the conversation on – what had it begun with again? An elephant? Their wild conversation had reached such crazy heights that Kakashi could not remember the root of it all. He watched Naruto excitedly exclaim, "The food's ready!" before the waiter had even come into view for those who could see.

"Your sense of smell has certainly heightened," Sakura commented with amusement as she watched the assorted plates placed in front of her.

Naruto nodded sagely. "That's why I can tell that I'm missing some of the things I ordered." He turned in what he thought was Kakashi's general direction and narrowed his eyes. _"Kakashi-sensei."_

"I'm over here," Kakashi deadpanned from the opposite direction.

"D'oh!"

Naruto was unaware of the gray eye that followed him as he reached across the table with his palm facing the ceiling.

"You're not eating, are you?" he asked Sasuke.

The atmosphere in the corner of the restaurant tensed.

Sasuke did not even bother to lift his head from the wall. He simply moved his eyes to stare at the whiskered boy (Naruto's eyes were staring at his neck), and then at the palm suspended in front of him. Very lazily, he wrote in simple strokes, I A-M.

"No, you're not. I didn't hear you pick up your chopsticks."

S-O-U-P.

"You didn't order soup."

Kakashi laughed inwardly at Naruto's stroke of genius, and at the furrowing of Sasuke's eyebrows when the Uchiha knew he had been caught.

"You can't keep anything from Naruto, Sasuke," he commented simply to watch the twitch of Sasuke's eyebrow at his frustration. He pretended not to see the look that clearly told him to _crawl under a rock and die_ as he stirred his soy sauce into his rice.

"We're at the most important part of the mission, Sasuke. And you were sick. You need to eat, or else you're going to collapse during infiltration and then you'll ruin the whole mission for us."

Naruto jumped at the sudden hand that clapped onto his shoulder, but relaxed when it withdrew and the warm voice of his sensei drifted to his ears.

"I think you should've been mission leader instead of me," Kakashi said with admiration and pride in his student.

"You don't mean that," Naruto said, despite the swell of joy in his chest.

"Yes, I do."

* * *

The team split up after their meal to explore the town for supplies. Sakura walked briskly, smiling at passersby. They returned the smile warmly, even exchanging a few words of _I haven't seen you before_ and _Do you need any help for directions_ to which she would whisper her replies and wait in her eternal silence as they answered.

She was in charge of the medical supplies and was kindly pointed in the right direction by a boy with wide eyes and a teddy bear tucked beneath his arm. He had followed her to the store with a thousand and one questions.

"So you're a ninja?"

"Yes, I am."

"But you're a girl."

"Yes, I am."

"But ninja are only boys."

Twitch.

"No, they're not."

"Yes, they are."

"No, they're not."

"Yuh-huh!"

Sakura's chest swelled with the sudden nagging feeling of female independence and superiority, her tongue swelled with speeches of women's rights and sexism and discrimination. She rounded on the boy with a malicious glint in her eye.

"Listen, brat –!"

"Excuse me?"

There stood the boy's father – or was it his brother? – in all of his six-foot-six glory, towering over the petite rosette with his muscled arms crossed over his toned chest. His booted toes tapped impatiently.

Sakura smiled nervously. "Nothing, sir!" she managed to squeak before bowing deeply and breaking off into a run.

Naruto had better luck when it came to the villagers despite his worse disability. It hadn't turned out so well at first. When the villagers smiled at him, he would not smile back. When they waved in greeting, he would walk right on, and this aroused angry whispers of the rude new arrival. It wasn't until three brave little tykes came up to challenge him did word spread that he was blind.

A blind ninja! Ha!

Naruto frowned at the whispers he heard as he walked to the market. The village was not one to have ninja of their own, rather experiencing a wide variety of ninja as they passed through since they were in a central location on the map. They knew not of the power they held, Naruto thought.

He heard a rustle to his left and smiled. There were kids in the bushes to his left; he guessed they were going to try and ambush him, and so he walked on with a cockier step to his saunter.

"Huwaaaaaaah!" came the battle cry from a short boy as he leapt into the air with a stick in his hands. But the stick met nothing. It sailed through the air and the little boy tumbled to the ground, coming up into a sitting position. He blinked his owlish eyes in confusion. Friends of his gathered around to see what had happened.

"Missed me?"

In another blink of the boy's eyes, Naruto had seized the stick from his hands and appeared behind him, digging the stick into the small of the boy's back. Terrified, he shrieked and threw his hands into the air as Naruto fell to the floor in laughter.

"You really _are_ a ninja!"

"Do that again!"

"How'd you do that?"

"Are you really blind?"

Naruto, a stranger to so much admiring attention, let the boys circle around him as he told tales of being a ninja. He smiled until his cheeks hurt, his mouth going on and on with words of fascinating journeys and perilous adventures.

"I want to be a ninja!" they chanted when he had excused himself to carry on stocking up on food.

But when he heard that single sentence, when he imagined their eyes lit with excitement, his smile disappeared. He turned around and bent his knees so that he could stare in their direction at once, and with the utmost of seriousness, he told them the truth:

"No, you don't."

* * *

Sasuke suddenly sneezed. **[1]**

* * *

The sun had yet to set when they met up again, this time at the gate of the village. Kakashi was rather surprised to see Naruto wave goodbye to a group of kids who had apparently been following him around the village. Rather than commenting, however, he chose to get right down to business. He had had his fun at the village's bookstore (with a new copy of _Icha Icha Paradise_ stored secretly in the pocket of his vest . . .).

"I showed you the map of the route at dinner. Does everyone remember it?" He received three nods of approval and took it as his cue to continue. "This is the route where they are sure to find us. They're not unintelligent enemies from B-ranked missions; you have to remember that this is an A-rank mission."

"We've never forgotten that, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said confidently, his face set into seriousness.

"We're not going to split up to meet at the cabin just yet. But if we're attacked – and _only_ if we're attacked – then we _will_ split up to divert the enemy from our backup route. Make sure the enemy is no longer trailing you and then secretly move onto the backup route; we should meet together in a matter of minutes should that happen." He paused, looking for any uncertainties in his students' faces. There were none. He knew he had trained them well.

"Be on your toes at all times."

They were hidden behind the leaves of the trees minutes later, choosing silence as they moved on. Kakashi did not schedule any one-on-ones. This was a crucial part of the mission; he would resume his one-on-ones when they had taken the Feudal Lord and were a safe distance away from the hideout.

Not long after they had left the gate of the village, they were already in the dangerous rescue game of the Feudal Lord.

"Naruto!"

The blond perked his head at the harsh whisper to his left and suddenly felt a hand push against him. Another hand ran itself through his hair – it was Sakura, indicating that she wasn't the enemy.

"What?" he asked. He no longer saw bursts of chakra on the trunks of trees and knew Kakashi and Sasuke had stopped as well.

Sakura pointed to where Naruto's foot had been about to step down so Kakashi and Sasuke could see what she spoke of. "A tripwire."

It was there, barely visible unless it caught the glint of the light at a certain angle. Sakura's eyes had seen what Naruto's could not.

Sasuke's head suddenly perked as well, his eyes spinning with the Sharingan. His ears had heard what Sakura's could not.

It was Kakashi who said what Sasuke's mouth could not:

"Can you hear that?"

There was a rustling of leaves. A swish of air. Sakura brought her hand up to block a kunai.

It had begun.

* * *

**[1] Sasuke suddenly sneezed - **some of you may already know this, but it's a South-east Asian myth that when a person sneezes, it means that someone is talking about him/her. You'll have to think very lightly to see why this sentence fits.


	5. Perilous

**Author's Note:** So this chapter focuses on Sasuke and Kakashi in the first half, and then Sakura and Naruto in the second half. I decided to divide them up so I can focus on each of them more.

AND there's a brief fight scene in here. This is NOTHING compared to the fight scene that will occur in the next (?) chapter. Is anyone anticipating Sai, by the way? He's coming up really soon, and may even surprise you a bit.

Thank you all for reading this story, and especially for reviewing!

**Chapter Five**  
…**:::Perilous:::…**

It had begun.

The enemies kept to the shadows; neither Sakura, nor Sasuke, nor Naruto, nor Kakashi had any idea of who or what they were up against. A barrage of kunai swept over them as they ran through the trees, dodging what they could, the sky filled with whistles and thuds and gasps of breath.

Sasuke and Sakura kept their eyes trained on Kakashi for the signal.

And there it was.

The silver-haired man reached into his vest for a shuriken, and that was the signal to split up. Sakura dutifully closed in the distance between her and Naruto and whispered into his ear, "Signal given."

They split up.

Each of them went in four separate directions, never looking back to the flurry of weapons that had been aimed to hit them. Kakashi vaguely wondered how they had been found so quickly; he knew the ninja they were up against were skilled, but he didn't think they would be so paranoid as to look for enemies miles away from their base.

Sasuke propelled himself powerfully from the branch he had landed on and spared a glance behind him when a kunai had come dangerously close to his ear. The barrage had lessened. There had been more than one ninja, he analyzed, and they had attacked together.

A crackle of leaves came from his left and he turned his crimson eyes sharply to the source, silently hoping. He hoped it was Naruto who was following him, who had chosen the same path as him. At least he could "speak" to Naruto comfortably, without the awkward, tense silence like that with Sakura.

But it wasn't Naruto.

It was one of the enemy; Sasuke could see him clearly now. He was clad in an attire of gray, his loose pants bound at his ankles, his body covered in a long cloak. Sasuke quickly rocketed from the branch and drove both of his feet into the chest of his attacker.

The enemy ninja grabbed onto his feet as he was propelled into the trunk of the tree, quickly recovering from the attack. He twisted Sasuke so that he was forced to turn lest he risk a broken ankle and swung him to the side.

_SHWAM!_

Chidori crackled from Sasuke's fingers. Blood dripped to the branch of the tree where he stood.

And he was off again. On his lonely, lonely trail. No one had chosen to follow him, and so he walked his trail alone.

Sasuke frowned.

He had gotten too used to being alone.

Naruto and Sakura had split up and had met going in the same direction. Naruto, however, was beginning to panic.

He wasn't used to panicking. He was Uzumaki Naruto. Impulsive. Confident. Clumsy at times, but skilled at others. Never panicked. So why was it that his chest constricted with dread? He bit at his bottom lip uneasily, following Sakura's bursts of chakras.

"What's wrong?"

Sakura's whispered voice came from directly in front of him all of a sudden. Naruto's eyes rose in mild surprise.

"How can you know something's wrong if you can't hear me?"

He knew she had shrugged from the rustle of her clothing. "It must be the heightened senses that come with disabilities," she whispered to him. "But I can see your irregular breathing. What's going on?"

Naruto shook his head. He couldn't tell her the anxiety he felt; she wouldn't understand. She would have to close her eyes for an eternity to know the darkness he was forced to see through. He was beginning to falter. Impulsiveness did not mix well with blindness, and Naruto was the epitome of impulsive behavior.

Being blind meant thinking strategically. One could not be impulsive and blind. All sorts of disasters would occur. It was not "live for the moment" – it was "think before you act." Naruto was bad at that. Terrible at that. he could sense an oncoming enemy and could not think of what to do.

"Here."

He felt Sakura's hand slip into his. The warmth it brought – oh, the warmth it brought! But Naruto could not think about that now, not when he felt the _whoosh_ of a kunai barely skim his ear. He trusted Sakura to be his guide as they continued forward, Sakura in the light and Naruto in the everlasting darkness.

"We've lost him," he heard Sakura say after several minutes of maneuvering through the trees. He knew she frowned after she had said that. "But it was too easy. It's like they're not trying to follow us at all."

Naruto grinned to ease away his terror. "Maybe Sasuke got to one of them and he's proving too much to handle," he said with confidence for his teammate. "Or maybe that bastard is right behind us."

Sakura pursed her lips.

Naruto could tell.

The terror continued to tear at his heart when his confidence died with his smile.

"Sakura," he whispered, although she could not hear the change of tone in his voice. He had to squeeze her hand to have her turn back to face him so she could read his lips. "Sakura, if I had been Sasuke . . . would you have helped me the same way?"

Sakura let go of his hand.

His heart jumped in thoughtless panic for a second at the loss of contact and he spluttered, calling out her name before focusing on searching for her chakra traces. She had only moved a few feet in front of him, still guiding him, but no longer answering him.

"Sakura?" he called again, but he knew she could not hear him. He knew she refused to face him, to read his lips, to face reality.

The two of them stayed in silence until they (Naruto unknowingly) set foot onto the backup route Kakashi had mapped out for them. The sun was over them by then, its golden rays powerless against the biting cold of the winter. Sakura pulled her cloak tighter around her and buried her chin into her collar as she pushed on.

"Yo!"

Sakura did not falter at the sudden sight of her sensei. She smiled slightly at his appearance, a smile that soon disappeared when she spotted the wound the man sported on the entire length of his thigh.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she exclaimed in astonishment.

Kakashi waved her off, jumping backwards (skillfully, he must add) so Sakura could see his mouth move. Naruto jumped towards them quickly.

"Kakashi-sensei?" he asked, to which Kakashi confirmed.

"I'm all right," he told them. "It's not that bad of a wound –"

"Not that bad?!" Sakura deciphered. "You're limping!"

"You've got a wound?!"

"Calm down, you two." Kakashi winced. "They've got a different tactic at taking down enemies than we're used to. They take them down one by one, from who they assume is the biggest threat to the least threat. They singled me out and ignorantly thought that since I'm the oldest, I'm the bigger threat, so they sent all their ninja after me.

"I'm not that big of a threat just because I'm an old geezer!" He pulled out his newest copy of _Icha Icha Paradise_ and opened up to a page in the middle. "See? I'm harmless!"

His eyes glinted with hidden meaning. He truly did not believe he was the biggest threat. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, with the powerful potential they held, were the biggest threats of all.

They set forth on the private route they had taken. Sakura had practically begged Kakashi to sit and let her heal his wounded leg, but he judged his own condition; he could last until they reached the cabin without any serious repercussions. It was a burn, not an impalement, not a deep wound – a simple burn.

Sasuke did not show up on their route for a long time, silently worrying the remainder of his team. Sakura desperately tried to focus on her worry of Kakashi's thigh rather than the Uchiha. She tried to think positively.

No, Sasuke did not take the _(perfect)_ opportunity to leave them forever.

No, Sasuke had not betrayed them.

Yes, Sasuke was probably dying from a gut wound.

Positive thinking.

She was surprised to find Kakashi suddenly next to her, his skin smelling distinctly and disgustingly of burning flesh.

"You know," he turned exaggeratedly to meet her eyes so she would see his lips move, "if he wanted to leave, think of all the opportunities he could have taken."

Of course. Of course Kakashi knew what she had been thinking – he was Hatake Kakashi, Mind-Reading Extraordinaire. She closed her eyes and smirked to herself, before frowning and thinking about what he said.

How many opportunities had Sasuke really had to escape?

And how many had he given up to stay?

"Do you really think what he wants to do right now is leave?"

Sakura lowered her head. It was not the first time she had thought of Sasuke as inferior, and it was not the first time she chided herself for it. Was it instinctive, to think of him as lower than her?

Kakashi, ever the wise sensei, spoke for her contemplation.

"Don't feel ashamed that you think that way," he said comfortingly. His eyes averted briefly to Naruto for a moment, knowing the blond was listening. "It's logical. You don't want anyone to get hurt anymore, yourself included. It's your defense mechanism; whenever you feel like you're getting too close to accepting him, you put him beneath you. It's like dehumanizing the enemy for war – in order to hate him, you have to make him into something capable of being hated."

He stopped to let the words sink in, finding that he was surprised at his own wisdom.

"But," he continued, lifting Sakura's bowed head so that she could see him, "I think you should realize that he isn't about to go around hurting people right now. Not when he's like that."

_Like what?_ she thought, but she knew.

Sasuke appeared unexpectedly at their side, startling even Kakashi, who had not sensed his presence at all. The silver-haired man had been about to send a weapon through Sasuke's chest had the Uchiha not locked eyes with his former sensei.

"You're masking your chakra again."

_"Reflex."_

"A potentially dangerous reflex," Kakashi agreed.

The tense atmosphere prior to the Uchiha's appearance dispersed to be left with an awkward atmosphere that Naruto did not try to break with conversation that would give away their location. Kakashi took the time to read a few pages from his book as he explained the mission plans further.

"When we head to the cabin, I'll only be taking one of you with me to the base – it depends on who is the least tired. We need two people to protect the cabin just in case, and it won't do to have two tired ninja become even more tired.

"We'll plan at sunset and rest for a little bit until it's a few hours into the dark. We'll infiltrate then. But does everyone know where we'll be bringing the Feudal Lord to? We can't bring him back to the cabin."

They shook their heads.

"A cave on the side of the far-off mountains. I'll show you where on a map when we get to the cabin."

They lapsed into a more comfortable silence after that, neither one risking the noise of conversation. Kakashi occasionally would whisper directions to his students, and when they had ventured far enough, he finally raised his voice for instructions on what would happen should they be confronted once more by enemies.

Naruto suggested heading back to their original route, and then altering between the original route and the backup route whenever they were attacked.

"That's not a good idea," Kakashi dismissed. "It would work with a B-rank mission, but not with these strategic ninja. They'll figure it out the second we head back to our original route and would split their troops to both of the paths. We'll be cornered then." He pointed to opposite sides with both his hands. "So we'll split up again and head to the wings. But hopefully, that won't happen."

It happened.

The second Kakashi dodged an oncoming shuriken, they knew to split up. Sasuke finally felt another familiar presence take the same direction he had, and he turned his head with high hopes that it would be Naruto.

He gritted his teeth.

It was Kakashi.

All of his attention was taken away from the odd silence of the forest to the wondering as to why he was so frustrated that Kakashi had been the one to accompany him. He wondered why he had gotten so angry simply because Naruto wasn't with him. At least Kakashi was better than Sakura's (lack of) company.

"This isn't a time to be bothered by my presence," Kakashi quipped from his left.

_"That's not what I'm thinking,"_ Sasuke mouthed back, but he dropped the subject altogether, focusing on the task at hand. There was an odd number of chakra traces surfacing around them. A _lot_ of chakra traces, as if the entire troop of ninja was following them.

Sasuke suddenly narrowed his eyes, realization dawning onto him, and turned to Kakashi.

_"You did this on purpose."_

The feigned innocence on Kakashi's face only made him angrier. "Did what on purpose?"

_"You could've followed anyone else, but you purposely chose me. You _knew_ all of the ninja would follow you since they still think you're the biggest threat and they haven't taken you out yet."_

"Ah." The silver-haired man didn't seem at all bothered at the fact that his intentions had been exposed. His lips quirked into a smirk and his eyes twinkled with amusement. "You caught me. I didn't want Naruto fighting. He's got the skills down, but he isn't as quick on his feet as I would have liked him to be, so fighting is still a danger to him. Sakura conveniently split up in his same direction, so I'm aiming to get the ninja as far away from them as possible."

_"So you're using me?"_

"I'm not using you, Sasuke. You're just conveniently helping me. An impulsive, blind ninja is not a good combination, and I think Naruto's already got that figured out." Kakashi frowned. "I've never seen Naruto show as much fear before in his life."

Sasuke snorted, staring ahead of him. _"As a ninja, Naruto should embrace his fears."_

Another glint of amusement twinkled in Kakashi's eyes and he silently made a note to watch the fears creep upon the cocky Uchiha when it was his turn to be plunged into total darkness. He didn't think Sasuke would be able to say the same thing twice.

"Heads up."

A sudden barrage of kunai came through the trees, catching neither Sasuke nor Kakashi off guard. The two deftly fled from the branches, weapons of their own in their hands.

_"Why are they only using kunai?"_ Sasuke tried to mouth to Kakashi when he had gotten the man's attention.

"Don't let your guard down. They're bound to have plenty of techniques."

The forest was suddenly ablaze with an intense heat that Sasuke felt from several meters away. He was able to avoid the sudden burst of flames that licked at the trunks of trees and burned the leaves until they were nothing but ashes, falling peacefully to the blackened ground. His skin had been too used to the blistering heat from his own fire jutsus.

In retaliation, he sent a thick stream of lightning from his hands in the direction of where the fire had come from, knowing he would hit the sender.

"Sasuke!"

A blur of black appeared in his peripheral vision, a sudden hand coming closer and closer to the side of his head until he finally ducked, sweeping his legs in a spin to knock the attacker off of his feet. Sasuke was able to catch a glimpse of the familiar attire of the man – no, woman.

"You're not as smart as we thought you'd be," she suddenly said melodically as she leapt into the air and did a quick succession of hand seals.

Sasuke glared at her, feeling Kakashi moving behind him as more enemies came jumping from the shadows. He jumped to the side to dodge the blast of fire from the kunoichi and raised an eyebrow at her, silently telling her to continue and choose her words wisely.

"I guess it was you," she told him. "You don't seem all that smart. All brawn and no brain, eh?"

_A fire user, _Sasuke chose to analyze instead, ignoring her taunts. _Don't fight fire with fire. Lightning-based jutsus are pretty weak against them, but they'll have to do in this situation. That means –_

"See, we found you because we followed some pretty obvious clues," the kunoichi's words sliced through his mind. "Someone had stupidly left these huge holes in trees that looked like they'd come from a training session. Massive holes, all in a succession. Led us straight here."

Sasuke stopped his analysis, his eyes widening slightly. Kakashi's head turned sharply in his direction and the Uchiha flinched, unable to meet Kakashi's eye as he grit his teeth in frustration.

_It was my fault._

He felt the tree beneath him begin to shake violently. A wave of rocks bubbled from the earth, rising in height and rolling, rolling, rolling, gathering more rocks as they advanced to where Sasuke stood. He was surprised slightly. Earth jutsus were his weakness. How had she known . . .?

"You are just too easy to fool, kid. I'm surprised you're teamed up with the legendary Hatake Kakashi," the kunoichi continued to taunt, watching as Sasuke jumped from rock to rock, literally riding the wave of earth as he created a succession of hand seals. "The holes in the trees were obviously made by a lightning-based jutsu, and you used a fire-based jutsu moments ago. Don't take us likely."

Sasuke cursed his own stupidity, and cursed the intelligence and skill of the ninja they were battling.

_Don't take _me_ lightly,_ he thought angrily as he rocketed into the air with a burst of chakra, disappearing suddenly. The kunoichi was finally taken by surprise. She could not sense his chakra, could not hear his presence through the distant battle cries, could not see a shadow on the earth. But she _did_ feel the surge of lightning and chakra surge through her chest. She _did_ see the edge of the sword protrude from her belly, the blood dripping – _drip, drip, drip_ – to the trunk beneath.

"You . . ." she managed to say between a cough that brought up blood.

The entirety of her surprise wasn't from the fact that Sasuke had managed to hit her. It was from the fact that Sasuke had missed all of her major vital organs. She would be able to pull out the sword without much harm to her body and live to tell the tale.

The blade was pulled from her body with a sickening _schlop_ and Sasuke stood in front of her, bloodied sword in hand, his eyes glaring with the crimson swirl of the Sharingan.

The kunoichi smirked as she fell to her knees. "An Uchiha," she choked out.

Sasuke did not stay to hear the rest of her taunting. He leapt from the branch to search for Kakashi, who had separated from him during the battle.

As the silver-haired sensei had predicted, the entirety of the enemies had teamed up against him; Sasuke had been lucky to have only a single ninja. Most lay dead on the ground beneath the trees, or wounded on the branches. Kakashi stood amidst the remaining six of the group. Sasuke saw his poor condition: the blood that ran down his arm, the fatigue lining his eyes from the activation of his Sharingan, his hunched stance as he panted harshly. And his burned leg. It looked even more grotesque than it once had been. They had attacked it, Sasuke thought. The bastards had played it dirty and attacked his wound.

Two ninja moved forwards suddenly, aiming for Kakashi's chest. Another two leapt into the air for a downwards blow as the remaining two swung their legs for a pair of deadly kicks aimed for the man's major wound. Kakashi let out a grunt of agony; he had deflected every ninja except the ones that had aimed for his leg. The pain brought him down to his knees.

"Now!" one enemy cried.

Another raised his ax behind his head, hovering over Kakashi's head of silver and ready to strike.

But the blow did not touch him.

Kakashi opened his eyes to see the shadow of a choppily-spiked head of hair and smiled to himself. He knew who it was behind him, grunting from the deflection of attacks and shuriken, dripping blood.

Sasuke clenched his teeth and put all of his strength into pushing the other ninja away from their stance of locked swords.

"Kuro!"

He fell forwards in surprise and caught himself. The ninja he had locked swords with had vanished.

They were retreating.

"Regrouping," Kakashi grit out as explanation, watching the shadows fade in the distance from one eye again. He allowed Sasuke to help him to his feet, wobbling dangerously and leaning too heavily onto the Uchiha for more support than he would have liked.

When Kakashi turned to lock eyes with Sasuke, the Uchiha noticed something different about the way he stared. Something was missing from the usual glance the older man sent his former pupil. Something.

Sasuke knew.

The disappointment had faded from his gray eye to be left with something that only made Sasuke more frustrated.

_And guilty._

"Sasuke, I'm –"

But Sasuke turned around and jumped away before Kakashi could complete his sentence.

He was furious. The anger pumped his veins and made the ache of his bleeding chest die. He didn't want to hear how proud Kakashi was of him. He didn't want him to be. Ever. Because he feared – oh, what overwhelming, consuming fear! – that in the end, he would leave them all again.

And it would be that pride that would hurt the most.

He was angry at himself. _He_ had led the ninja to them. _He_ had stupidly let his anger consume him, blind him _(but it was so hard not to)_; he had let his teammates suffer at the cost of his stupidity.

_"Damn it!"_

Kakashi jumped slowly behind him in an air of ease.

They reached the cabin several minutes later to the presence of Sakura and Naruto; the pair had arrived much earlier, thankful that they had only encountered a single ninja that had quickly retreated. But the second Sakura had cast her eyes upon Kakashi's leg, she jumped in surprise before her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes narrowed.

Insert Mother Mode™.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she chided, easing the man into a wooden chair in the living room. "You shouldn't be so careless as a team leader! What if I couldn't heal you? You'd have to amputate your leg! And then where would you be?"

Kakashi simply smiled his eye-crinkling smile.

"Sweet, sweet Sakura," he said.

She dug her nails "accidentally" into his thigh.

"Never mind that," Kakashi continued, his visible eye beginning to glaze over from the pain. He blinked absently. "I need to be healed quickly so we can carry on with the original plans."

Naruto stood up at this, his trained eyes staring at Kakashi's forehead. "You've got to be kidding me! You're _still_ going to go with the original plans?! You can barely stand!"

"Kakashi-sensei, just pick another pair to go," said Sakura. "Map out the course for us. We'll be just as good as you, except we won't be tired." She smirked slightly. "You were always telling us to watch out for ourselves or we'll hinder the mission. You hypocrite."

Kakashi did not argue long. He continued to smile, silently teasing himself that his students were too smart for him.

But who to send?

As Sakura continued to seam his muscles and flesh together, he sent a fleeting glance at his students, his mind turning its cogs tirelessly in analysis. Sakura was the first choice to go; she was neither completely exhausted, nor was she injured. It was the second choice that Kakashi had the most difficulty with.

Naruto was tired, although the blond would never admit it. Kakashi knew how much of an effort it took to constantly search for chakra traces without a helpful bloodline limit to ease the process. He was also blind. Not only did that make observations of the enemy base difficult, but should the blond be engaged in sudden battle, problems would arise. His chakra was difficult to conceal as well, something that would cause trouble amongst enemies should they encounter them.

But Sasuke was beyond exhausted, and the Uchiha would not admit it either. Kakashi wanted nothing more than to put Sakura and Sasuke together on a mission to force them to get along and work together, but Sasuke, in the condition he was in, would not hold up. His bleeding wounds needed to be dressed, his chakra needed to be replenished, and above all, he was angry – Kakashi knew. Sasuke was unusually angry, and Sakura was at risk of getting a violent backlash from the Uchiha if she even so much as spoke to him the wrong way.

Kakashi sighed, his plan of lessening the tension between Sakura and Sasuke foiled.

"Sakura and Naruto, you two will be heading to the base. Sasuke and I will stay here."

Naruto smiled at this, despite his mind telling him that Kakashi was crazy for sending a blind ninja to _observe_.

"We'll come back with so much information, it'll take days to write it all down!" he exclaimed confidently, flashing a Lee-like thumbs up in his sensei's direction.

Kakashi did not tell him that he was staring in the wrong direction.

He handed Sakura a map of the base and told them to write down their observations on it, making any corrections on it, including seals, number of guards, entrances, side gates – whatever they could find. His confidence on the success of the mini-mission was renewed when Naruto touched his shoulder gently with a reassuring smile.

"Get your rest, you two."

And they left.

Sasuke stood up stiffly and told Kakashi to stay inside. He'd be on patrol outside.

And he left, too.

Sakura and Naruto had made it to the trees just outside the perimeter of where Kakashi had mapped the base to be. They had encountered no enemies, despite Naruto's difficulty of concealing his chakra; if anything, Naruto's disabilities encouraged him to overcome them, and he trained himself as he followed Sakura's bursts of chakra.

They were watching the perimeter now, Sakura focusing on the more intricate, western parts of the base, and Naruto focusing on the simpler, eastern parts. As a matter-of-fact, there wasn't anything simple or intricate about the base at all. It was hidden amongst a mountain – whether inside, beneath, or behind the mountain, Naruto and Sakura did not know. But all they needed was any lead, any slightest hint that would show them the entrance.

"Naruto!" Sakura suddenly whispered, her hand grabbing for the blond's arm gently. He turned in her direction and focused his eyes on a sudden burst of chakra.

"What's that?"

"The enemy. He materialized out of nowhere." Sakura's eyes searched for anything, but it had, in fact, seemed as if the ninja had just come from . . . nothing. "There's a rockslide on my side of the mountain," she continued. "And there's a seal at the bottom of it. I'm guessing if someone tried to remove the seal, the rockslide would activate again. How are things going on your side?"

Naruto turned his head back to total darkness.

"No activity."

Who was he kidding? The enemy could be forming a coup right before his very eyes and he would not know. He frowned at his hindrance.

"I'm going to try and get a closer look at that seal. Keep your eyes opened for any hints to another entrance."

Oh, the irony.

Sakura made sure she had Naruto's approval before she jumped away, far from Naruto's would-be line of sight. The whiskered boy kept his eyes trained on his side of the mountain nonetheless. Not one to give up, he only became more determined at proving himself. Proving that he could get over his disability as if he were a normal ninja.

And his patience paid off. A sudden burst of chakra flared in the darkness of his vision before it disappeared completely. Interested, Naruto stared patiently at the area he'd seen the trace for another flare that appeared moments later. He decided to go into more detail with his observations; he tensed, focusing intensely on the trace of an entire being.

When he had pinpointed a ninja (smiling in his success), he stopped focusing on the entire body and focused only on his hands. Surely he must have been doing something with his hands to make the flare of chakra: a single seal, he deduced. But which seal? The ninja had disappeared before he could figure that part out.

He continued to wait. Minutes went by – how many, he did not know. His body was alert in his excitement, and so when the next ninja came by, he sensed him immediately and focused directly on his hands. But he could not get the zodiac animal. The brief chakra that surged through the fingers of the ninja was too fine for Naruto's untrained, naked eyes to see.

But he did not sink in defeat. Rather, he became more excited, a grin breaking out on his face as he waited for the ninja to disappear. Making sure no other traces were nearby, he quickly hopped from his place in the trees to the single area where the chakra traces had been continuously appearing and disappearing and stood, feet slightly apart.

_This is it!_ he thought excitedly. Curiosity had gotten the best of him. He stood there, bracing himself for the best, and began to make all of the animal seals.

The ox was not the seal. Nor was the tiger, nor the rabbit.

But when his hands made the seal for the dragon, he wished he hadn't.

His gut wrenched. He felt himself get pulled back by his navel as if there was an invisible string attached to it from the inside of his stomach. His head spun, round and round, as his insides rolled and his skin pulled away from his muscles.

He was being teleported, he soon realized as the scene of trees began to disappear from before his very eyes. It was a teleportation jutsu unlike the Space-Time jutsu, one that was painful. And before he knew it, everything had stopped.

Naruto fell harshly to a cement floor the second his feet met the ground. There was silence all around him, and a cold, damp atmosphere.

He was inside the enemy base.

"Naruto!"

Sakura's emerald eyes widened in panic as she continued to frantically look for her vanished comrade. She had come back from examining the seal (which had turned out to be completely futile; there had been an animal summon waiting behind it, and a large one at that) only to find that Naruto had completely disappeared.

_Where could he possibly go if he's blind?!_

Her heart was racing. What if the enemy had found him and had taken him away? That seemed like the only logical explanation, unless the blond had followed a ninja into the base. But Sakura quickly took that option from her mind, her faith in his observational skills lost. He was a skilled ninja, she knew, but not when he was blind.

All Naruto knew was that he had to get out. Fast.

His panic began to set in again. Where was he? Were there enemies around him? Could they see him? What if he walked forward – would there be a ditch? A lake? A monster?

The blond tried to calm himself with deep, quiet breaths, trying to think rationally. He was definitely inside of the enemy base, and definitely inside of some room with a completely flat surface. The walls – he touched them – were made of rock, so he knew the base was either inside or under the mountain.

But where was the exit?

He stilled for a moment, focusing all of his energy into searching for chakra traces. Since he was inside of the base, there would be no reason for the enemies to be masking their chakra. Or at least he hoped. His luck had followed him, it seemed, because he could sense the chakra of each and every one of the ninja around him. And they were far away.

Perfect.

Well, _almost_ perfect.

Naruto reached his hands out to feel along the walls for any sort of opening, hoping and praying that no ninja would decide to walk into whatever room he was in. It seemed like an extra, random room. The walls were bare, the floors were simple, and there was only one entrance, which Naruto was quick to find. He swiftly ducked back into the room, however, at the sudden presence of chakra.

Two ninja were walking by, one more powerful than the other.

"We've got to feed him," Naruto heard one argue. "If he dies, then our negotiation plans are finished!"

"They'll never know he died," the other replied.

"I think they'd know if they asked to see him first and we have nothing to show them."

Naruto's heartbeat began to quicken again. _They're talking about the Feudal Lord!_ his mind shouted, nervous sweat running down his temples. He poked his head out the door when he felt no more presences in the area and decided to turn to the left where the two ninja had just come from.

His mind did its best to create a mental map of the walls he was feeling. Wall . . . wall . . . door with three chakra presences behind it . . . wall . . . torch . . . chains . . . door . . .

He suddenly wished Sakura was there with him. She would guide him, her warm hand enclosed upon his own, marking down the territory on the map with her seeing eyes.

"Hey! You there!"

Jumping was an understatement. Naruto practically touched the ceiling with the jump from the shock of the voice. _What did I do wrong?! There were no chakra traces! _He stood still, paralyzed in fear as he stared blankly into the darkness, waiting for another voice to call out to him.

But none came.

The voice that had shouted suddenly lowered and a hearty smack of the flesh was heard. "I was looking all over the base for you! We've got orders from the boss to feed the prisoner. Take these bowls and head over there while I get Mio."

One chakra presence began rounding the corner to where Naruto stood. The whispered boy shook himself from his paralysis and turned, feeling the walls frantically for a door, an opening, anything without the presence of another being.

Closer . . . closer . . . closer!

_Aha!_

He wrenched the fifth door down the hallway open and quickly shut it behind him, waiting in silence as he felt the chakra presence pass him without any disturbances. It was only then did he get a good smell of the room he had closed himself in.

Blood. Sweat. Piss.

Naruto scrunched his nose in disgust. He didn't have to feel the walls for shackles to know it was a torture room. Without any hesitation, he opened the door once more and exited into the hallway, taking in a deep, quiet breath of relief.

It was becoming more and more dangerous to stay in the base. Naruto did his best to quietly rush down the hall, his hands tracing the walls, chakra traces blurring past him as he ran. He was in too much danger already. If _one_ person saw him, he was doomed.

"Ryuzaki, the prisoner isn't in the basement cell!"

Naruto whipped his head to the hall he'd just turned from and stopped in his frantic run.

"Calm down. We moved him to the cell in the back – the one next to the giant pillar. He has asthma, so the basement wasn't doing him any good, and we need him alive. Can you believe it? The Feudal Lord has asthma!"

Naruto did not stay behind to hear the sigh of relief, or the mocking laugh. His mind whirled with thoughts as he picked up his run again.

_Five doors on one hallway. Mio. Ryuzaki. Basement cell. The Feudal Lord is in a cell next to a giant pillar._

"Kuro's gang is taking off for the night," another voice came from the hallway to Naruto's left as he passed it. He perked his ears, slowing his pace but not staying still. "It's our turn. Let's head out. We'll take the eastern exit – he said that's where the enemy came from."

At this, Naruto finally stopped.

There were seven chakra traces, each of them moving away from him. He moved backwards, feeling the traces grow fainter and fainter. They would lead him to an exit, he knew. And better yet, an exit that was in the direction of their cabin.

_Eastern exit_, he mentally noted as he followed. _Kuro's gang._

The traces stopped. Naruto stayed back, listening and focusing on their hands now. They were standing much like the ninja he'd seen enter the base had done, he thought. So it must be a teleportation site. He hoped the dragon seal worked for all of the sites.

"It's the rabbit seal, you idiot!"

_What?!_

He heard the smack of flesh and smirked to himself. It was as if he was in a novel, and everything was working to his advantage. An idiot ninja had made the wrong seal and he had heard the correction conveniently. He thanked whoever the author of his story was and listened once more.

"This is the _east_ern exit, not the western one!"

"Sorry . . ."

There was a sudden _swoosh_ of air, and Naruto knew they were gone.

"Intruder!"

Now, Naruto knew that was about him. He had been careless. In the split second he had focused on the chakra of the ninja that had just left the base, he had forgotten to search his surroundings.

He silently cursed the author of the novel.

Rushed footsteps were getting louder and louder, but Naruto did not panic. He knew he could get out safely, and so he ran forwards, his hands moving into the rabbit seal, and suddenly, he was being teleported again. His gut wrenched, his stomach being pulled from behind at his navel, his insides roll, the pain was back and blinding –

– And suddenly, he was rolling on the ground, grass clinging to his sweater, the cold wind biting against his bare skin, a vague ache in his previously abused shoulder.

He scrambled to his feet, knowing that the enemies could not be far behind. But he did not know which direction to begin heading. Blindly, he ran forwards. The temperature dropped several degrees, telling him that he had entered the shade of the forest; rushed footsteps continued behind him.

_SMACK!_

Naruto let out a howl of pain, holding his face in his hands.

He had run into a tree.

The sickly taste of blood met his mouth and he spat, his nose throbbing. _Idiot!_ he chided himself, still rolling on the floor from the force of the agony. Hands were suddenly pulling him up from the ground, pulling his hands away from his face, and he began to flail terribly. He screamed, he growled, he kicked, he punched, his heart trying to beat its way from his chest, desperately trying to wrench the hands off of him.

But one of those hands suddenly ran through his hair, and he immediately stopped.

"Sakura?" he asked weakly, growing limp.

He vaguely wondered what he must have looked like. An animal? Dirt clinging to his clothes, blood pouring down his face, a snarl on his bloody lips, teeth glistening, limbs flailing – had he looked wild? The thoughts vanished when he felt the warmth of an embrace. Sakura was hugging him.

If humans could melt, Naruto would have at that very moment. He was rarely ever hugged by Sakura. To be wrapped so tightly in the arms of the girl of his every thought made his body stop. The world silenced, and nothing mattered. It was only he and Sakura, two people in the middle of the forest, and for a fleeting second, he wished he could forget about everything and stay there.

But then devastating reality came crashing onto him and he pulled back, blinking confusedly, his nose still throbbing.

"Where did you _go?"_ he heard her voice demand in an angry, mother-like tone. "If you weren't already bleeding, I'd punch you in the face right now!"

"Heh . . . Sakura . . ." He rubbed his neck sheepishly, too used to her harsh words. His mind suddenly remembered the mission, and he felt for her arm. "We've got to get back to the cabin right away!" He started running blindly. "I was just inside of their hideout! I've got so much to say –"

Sakura shushed him, her eyes wide for any sight of enemy ears. "I'll lead the way back," she whispered to him, and she switched the positions of their hands so that she held his. Naruto had no time to think about the proximity (or about the way her hair still smelled like the apples that matched her eyes). He focused on the mission.

Sakura looked back at Naruto briefly, seeing his sightless eyes seemingly staring into her own. Blood flowed from a cut just above his left eyebrow and from his nose. It was smudged onto his hands from when he'd covered his face.

"I'm really sorry I can't heal you right now," she told him, turning back. "I heard the enemy nearby, and I'm guessing they were following you. Does it hurt to the point where you can't carry on?"

She saw him shake his head and smile from the corner of her eyes, but the blood-covered toothy grin did not make her heart any lighter.

The cabin was a few meters ahead, she knew, but before she proceeded, she tried to sense if there were any chakra traces around.

"Naruto, I need you to see if you can sense any traces nearby. With your training, you're probably a lot better at it than I am."

Naruto grinned instinctively, but decided not to poke fun. He stopped on a branch in concentration and Sakura saw his eyes close in focus.

"None."

She immediately pulled him forward.

The cabin was deserted when Sakura ran in with Naruto. She looked around, alarmed. "Kakashi-sensei!" she called, her eyes darting to every corner of the wooden house. Not even Sasuke was in her view. She was about to jump to rational conclusions when the silver-haired sensei suddenly limped from his room, his hair more gravity-defying than it had originally been, and his eyes lidded from grogginess.

"Yo," he said, lifting one arm as his eye analyzed the state of his teammates: Sakura, covered in dirt and pebbles, and Naruto, covered in dirt and blood.

Sakura thought Naruto would have screamed at their sensei had he been able to see the ruffled state he was in, but Sakura did not. She knew Kakashi had been sleeping and did not blame him; they were in no apparent danger, and Kakashi's leg was probably still throbbing in pain. She softened her expression, easing Naruto into a chair.

"Were you attacked by the enemy?" Kakashi asked (trying to conceal the weariness in his voice), gesturing to Naruto's face as he shuffled down the stairs.

"Sort of," offered Naruto. "You sound strange, Kakashi-sensei. Were you sleeping?"

Kakashi laughed.

He finally made it downstairs and sat on a chair in front of the bleeding blond. One of his hands, sans glove, reached into his pants pocket and removed the map of the enemy's hideout.

"I expect a full mission report, including details to add to the map. Sakura, you'll find Sasuke on the roof. Call him in. I'll help Naruto with his wounds. If they're small, we shouldn't waste your chakra to treat them."

Sakura and Kakashi both walked away, each in opposite directions. Kakashi went to retrieve medical supplies. Sakura went to retrieve Sasuke.

She found the Uchiha leaning against the (rather pointless) chimney on the roof, one foot extended in front of him and the other pulled to his chest. He was staring with a strange level of alertness into the trees ahead of him. Sakura stood still for a moment, beginning an internal debate.

How should she call him?

She had never thought about it before. There had been no need to confront him herself. But now, what would she say? Should she call him by his first name? His last name? Should she add some sort of suffix? Or what about a preset "hey"?

She sighed. Her contemplation brought her to apathy.

"Sasuke!"

His head immediately jerked in her direction. She could see the surprise in his eyes, but decided it was best not to point it out, or to crack a sarcastic comment. Instead, she gestured for him to come down.

"We're going over the hideout's mapping. Kakashi-sensei sent me to get you."

She did not wait for a nod of approval, but when she turned around, she heard the sudden _thud_ of his feet as he jumped from the roof behind her.

Kakashi leaned Naruto's head back against the table gently. The blond flinched, his face scrunching before he regretted the painful movement.

"Your hands are cold."

"Your butt is big. If we're done stating the obvious, I'd like to carry on administering first aid."

Naruto pretended he accidentally closed his jaw at the same time Kakashi's finger was hovering above his mouth.

Kakashi didn't even bother pretending his tug on Naruto's hair was an accident.

He began working away at the layer of blood that caked the blond's tanned skin, soaking his face with a cloth of warm water. A snicker escaped his lips every now and then, until Naruto – annoyed – finally asked what he was laughing at.

"You ran into a tree."

"You haven't heard the mission report yet! Don't judge me!"

His outburst only made Kakashi laugh louder as the man wiped away the blood and taped a bandage above his eyebrow. Naruto lifted his head just in time to hear Sakura and Sasuke enter. He felt a flick to his ear – Sasuke's new way of saying hello.

"You've got to come up with a different way of telling me you're there," Naruto said as he rubbed his reddening ear.

Sasuke smirked.

Kakashi directed their attention to the map he had spread out on the table, telling Naruto and Sakura to recall their accounts of what had happened. Naruto had gone into his recollection in complete animated detail, to which Kakashi was initially surprised at his lucky ingenuity.

Naruto described where he had heard the Feudal Lord was being kept, and Sasuke suddenly pointed to a spot on the map.

"We found it, Naruto."

Sakura's recollection had been different. After she had lost sight of Naruto, she had continued around to the other side of the base, discovering the different seals they had placed. There were four in total, each with a different summon animal behind them. None of them, however, were the real entrances. They were meant to be traps – seeming entrances. She had also gotten the total amount of guards on duty outside of the base.

"Four there . . . six here . . . ten here . . . four there . . ."

In the end, the map had been covered with green marks of all sorts, each of them pointing out a new obstacle. Kakashi congratulated Sakura, telling her that her analytical skills had excelled. He praised Naruto with pride swelling in his chest, telling the blond that he had grown in overcoming his disability.

He circled the location of the Feudal Lord and stood straight to look at his teammates.

"This," he said, pointing with one finger at the spot he had circled moments ago, "is where we'll be in four hours. The only reason we shouldn't be there in four hours is if we're dead."

His eye glanced over blind Naruto, deaf Sakura, and mute Sasuke, and he knew that they would, in fact, make it there in four hours.

Give or take.


	6. Solicitous

**Author's Note:** So this is pretty late. On Update Day last week, something not-too-nice happened in my family. Just saying. I apologize for life.

This chapter is shorter than usual because I think the ending is like BAM!

Enjoy!

**Chapter Six**  
…**:::Solicitous:::…**

One hour into the night.

Kakashi had gone over the procedure with his teammates _(students?)_, giving each of them a role to play in the infiltration based on their disabilities. They were to carry out their roles without question, and should anything go wrong, improvisation was not a favorable option. The former students nodded their heads in understanding.

It had begun to snow as they rested. A flurry of crystalline flakes had rushed to cake the windows with white. Naruto felt the windowpanes, feeling the cold of the blizzard, and he stared into the darkness in longing, his nose and hands pressed against the icy glass. All he thought about was how great it would be to simply run outside and play in the snow, instead of preparing to infiltrate an enemy base. He sighed, his breath crawling over the window in a heavy fog.

The time of rest had gone by quickly. They stood at front of the door now, their weapons restocked, their bodies warmed by cloaks, and their chakra replenished.

"We don't have to be as careful with this snow," Kakashi informed, rubbing some of the powdery snowfall between his hands. "Any tracks we leave will be immediately covered."

They were off without further notice.

Their communication within the base would be limited. Sakura had deduced from her observations that the base was, in fact, _underneath_ the mountain rather than within it or behind it; signals from radios would never reach. And so, without Sai and his ink animals, they were forced to communicate only face-to-face.

In six minutes, the team was perched on the branches of trees where Naruto and Sakura had once stood to observe, their bodies hidden by the thick shrubbery and the overwhelming darkness.

"They're not outside," Sakura whispered, her breath coming before her in a wisp of air.

"So we'll go with the alternative plan. Understood?"

Since they were carrying out an A-rank mission, they had taken the time to think of every possibility for their infiltration. The guarding ninja would surely be expecting the infiltration. Kakashi took their expectancy two ways: they would be guarding the external teleportation site heavily, or they would be waiting at the internal teleportation landing site to ambush them. It seemed the latter, and they were planned for it.

Sasuke sighed silently.

The branches barely shook as they propelled themselves stealthily to the ground, executing their plan flawlessly and without question. Sasuke stood alone on the teleportation site and put his hands into the position of the dragon seal.

And then he was gone.

Kakashi stared into the distance blankly for exactly five minutes before signaling Sakura and pushing Naruto forward. The three of them stood on the site in a single huddled mass, making the dragon seal in sync, and were suddenly met with the same room Naruto had been in. Sakura and Naruto had fallen to the floor from the sudden movement, but Kakashi had stayed standing, eyeing the only ninja present in the room.

In a single glance, he took in the room, the ninja, and then went into action before the two black-covered men had the chance to call for backup. Five unconscious men littered the ground. A trail of blood led from the center of the room to the door and onward in a jagged line as if the person who had created it had been dragged out.

Sasuke.

"There were two in the room," Kakashi whispered aloud so Naruto would hear. "I've knocked them out. We'd better hurry before backup gets here."

They knew what to do as if they had been training for weeks. When they had entered the hall, Kakashi and Naruto went to the right, whereas Sakura moved to the left and carried on down the hallway. The infiltration was going according to plan, and Kakashi inwardly smirked at the combined ingenuity of his teammates – no, of his _students_.

Sakura was checking up on the Feudal Lord's original position – the one Naruto had heard him to be. She crept along the walls, ducking into crevices and spare rooms whenever she saw the sight of the enemy. Concealing her chakra, she continued forward.

_Next to the pillar. Next to the pillar_, she told herself in a silent mantra, keeping her eyes alert for the pillar that was supposed to come into sight when she turned two more corners. She vaguely noticed that the trail of blood from the teleportation landing site had disappeared into a room to her left, and she sighed at the chakra she would be depleting on healing wounds.

The cell next to the pillar was empty.

It had come into view the second Sakura stepped around the corner, but she did not curse in frustration. They had expected it. The enemies would have to be completely idiotic to not have moved the Feudal Lord from his original position. And so, carrying on with the plan, she crouched behind the pillar to eavesdrop on any conversations of bypassing ninja.

_BRRRRACK!_

She was suddenly slammed against the wall. Rocks crumbled as she slid slowly to the floor. She tried desperately to regain her senses, squinting through bleary vision at a figure that was charging towards her with a wave of earth building behind him.

"How'd you make it in, girly?" she read off of his sneering mouth.

She did not know the rest of his taunting. Her eyes looked swiftly to her right side and she did what instinct told her to do: break the pillar to use it as a shield; the infrastructure of the base would not come crashing down from the destruction of that single pillar. Chakra surged in her right fist and in the moment the man sent the wave of earth forwards, the pillar came crashing down in front of her crouching body, blocking the brunt of the attack and splitting the wave as if she was a pink-haired Moses.

Sakura sprinted from behind the pillar before the wave had the chance to die down, hoping her attacker would still be focused on her original position.

He wasn't.

Of course he wasn't, she chided herself. He was an A-ranked ninja, she supposed. She dodged his oncoming balls of – mud? – and rolled behind a corner next to the cell. With her left hand, she reached out from her hiding spot and grabbed on to one of the metal bars of the cell. It snapped beneath her grasp and she wrenched the broken pieces out of their spots, officially creating her own makeshift weapons.

"You want taijutsu?" the enemy asked, the sneer nowhere to be found in his expression. "I won't give it to you."

He continued with a sudden barrage of earth-based ninjutsu. Sakura could not stay behind her corner for long. Tucking the broken bars into her overskirt, she ran from room. It was not in the plan of her team to fight and kill whoever stood in their way. Her mission at that very moment, now that her original one had been foiled, was to report back to Kakashi. They would go with the alternative plan of their alternative plan.

Vaguely, as she ran from a rumble of rocks, she wondered how many alternative plans Kakashi had.

Sasuke was annoyed.

He was tired from struggling, something he personally did not find favorable. Struggling was not his thing. And now he was still holding up a violent fit as they attempted to shackle him to the wall. He flailed whatever he could: his legs, his arms, his chest, and heck, even his head for no apparent reason.

Kakashi said to put up a struggle, so he put up a damn good struggle.

They finally got the shackles around his wrists and he inwardly smirked, finally growing limp. His legs were aching; the enemy had managed to wound him deeply in the back of his thigh, just beneath his left buttock.

He'd be damned if he let Sakura heal it.

"You're not blond," one of them said to him, narrowing his eyes. "Where's your headband? Who did you come from?"

Sasuke wasn't listening to him. He was going over the plan in his head.

He had been chosen as a distraction. He was to enter the room of awaiting ninja, battle to the second best of his ability, and then allow himself to be captured so that he could observe the corridors, the room they would put him in, and any potential information for the position of the Feudal Lord or tricks to the base. Kakashi had picked him in particular because of his lack of voice for whatever torture the enemy would put upon him, his lack of hindering disability, and his particular skills for escaping.

_SLAP!_

Sasuke was really annoyed.

"Speak, brat!"

They grew frustrated at his lack of speaking. Sasuke watched as one of them – the one that had been doing all of the talking – jerked around to face the rest of them in the room. He pointed to one in the corner.

"Akira! Inform the rest of the base about the possibility of other intruders!" Another pointing finger turned to one by the door. "Shii! Tell Leader about our little capture here!" Another finger. "Nagisa! Go check on the prisoner in the basement! Make sure his asthma isn't acting up!"

_Bingo._

"Ryuzaki!" The man turned back to look evilly at Sasuke. "Bring Mikio. Tell him to be prepared to torture."

Sasuke thought he'd heard enough. The chirping of a thousand birds began to play, building up in a thundering crescendo before the entire room was engulfed in flickering light. The enemies backed away in shock at the electric chakra that visibly surged from the entirety of Sasuke's body.

"He's escaping!" one woman cried when she had blinked from her stupefaction.

Sasuke pulled harshly on the shackles that bound his wrists. They broke in an instant, and he pushed himself from the wall, sword out in front of him.

Bursts of dirt erupted in his vision suddenly. The earth element-wielding ninja were trying to suppress the lightning. Sasuke gave his infamous arrogant smirk and swiped his thumb across his teeth, drawing blood. _Kuchiyose no jutsu!_

In puffs of smoke, snake after snake appeared, large, small, purple, white. Sasuke looked to the largest and locked eyes with him.

"Uchiha-san," it spoke over the panicked voices of the enemy. The other snakes had already broken through the walls, run down the ninja, and escaped to wreak havoc. "It's been a while."

_"Do not tear down any more walls,"_ he tried to communicate with it. Since establishing that the base was inside of the mountain, Sasuke had been careful not to crumble the inner structure lest they risk a major collapse.

The snake, however, bobbed confusedly in place.

"Have you lost your voice, Master?" it hissed.

Inwardly, Sasuke rolled his eyes. Outwardly, he nodded his head to move things along, and then spoke his command again with exaggerated movements. The snake understood that time, and it nodded its large head, turning around to slither away.

Sasuke rubbed his raw wrists and limped out of the room. The infiltration was going according to plan.

"Sasuke's free."

Kakashi watched a smallish snake wriggle in front of them, leading them. He and Naruto had been reunited with Sakura moments before. She had been panting harshly, mud dripping from her once-pink hair and soaking her clothes as she ran.

"Plan B to Plan B," she had managed to get out.

Kakashi nodded his head and smiled despite the situation. "I've got to come up with better names for plans," he joked.

Naruto wished he had been deaf rather than blind at that moment. At least Sakura's eardrums were not crying out because of the chaos going on around them. Walls were crumbling, people were shrieking, indistinguishable orders were being screamed, rocks tumbled here and there. They ran down the hallways without much difficulty; Sasuke's distraction had been well-received.

Sasuke's snake had led them to the deepest corridors of the base, down a flight of steps, and into the darkness of the basement.

"We're in the basement, aren't we?" Naruto spoke up, lifting his head in the colder atmosphere.

"We are."

"So they brought the Feudal Lord back to where they had originally kept him. It's probably temporary. He has asthma."

"We'd better hurry, then."

They were prepared for an epic battle. What they saw, however, was rather short of epic. Two ninja guarded an iron door.

No one else.

_They're either really strong, or there's an ambush waiting to happen,_ thought Sakura. _Or they've underestimated us. Or they're stupid, and they all went for Sasuke's distraction. Or . . ._

"They're here," Naruto heard one of the ninja whisper. He wondered who they could possibly be speaking to. Nonetheless, he prepared himself for an ambush that never came.

Kakashi did not bother hiding. He confronted the two directly, one hand poised on his headband.

"We knew you would come," the ninja on the left spoke. He was burly, as wide as the door he was guarding, with deep-set eyes and long, long black hair.

"Your other teammate – that kid with the black hair – is good. He managed to bring down the security to a bare minimum. But don't take us lightly." The other ninja was a light blue-haired young man, tall and lean and handsome. He winked.

"We weren't planning on it."

In a spit second, Kakashi was crouching beneath two crossed swords, his Sharingan eye swirling wildly.

The battle had begun.

Sakura stayed off to the side for a moment's time, her eyes narrowed. There were only two ninja. Why? Would there be more? There didn't seem to be. She watched the thin man first. He fought with just his fists. The other man fought with two sabers, both of them glowing with chakra. But they had to have more in store for them to be trusted to guard the Feudal Lord.

How could she be sure the Feudal Lord was even in there?!

She would have to check when the ninja were occupied. They seemed to be attacking only Kakashi, who was doing his best to avoid the taijutsu confrontation. Naruto was standing off to the side as well, his face determined to understand the situation, before Sakura saw his hands move up to his face in the form of a seal.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Sakura took the distraction of fifty Narutos as the time to move to the iron door and peer through its barred window.

And suddenly, she was flung back.

She skidded across the floor, her skin burning from the impact. A high-pitched laugh erupted from the thin man.

"I told you not to take us lightly!" he shrieked, not even staring in Sakura's direction as he plunged his fist forward into a Naruto clone. "But look! You've sent a blind ninja after me! A _blind_ ninja!"

"Be a bit more creative with your insults, you hag!"

"Hag?!"

But the young man did not have time to say anything else. His head was jerked painfully to the side from the force of a sudden kick from an airborne Naruto. He skidded to the floor much like Sakura had done moments ago.

"Sorry," Naruto said with a grin, brushing dust from his hands. "You sounded like a woman to me."

"Why you –!"

He stood up in frustration and leaned back. His flat stomach began to bulge, his neck inflating, but Naruto did not see. Sakura rocketed from the floor to push him out of the way with a cry of his name.

"Head for cover!" yelled Kakashi.

Seconds after he had spoken, the thin man opened his mouth in what would have been a scream. Purple liquid gushed out instead. It steamed. It bubbled. It engulfed the entire floor in a sea of thick, violet lava. Sakura had taken Naruto's hand and had crashed her fist into a nearby pillar so that she could stand on it, as Naruto's clones disappeared puff by puff. Kakashi had pumped chakra into his feet to run onto the wall. From there, he made a quick succession of seals and brought his fingers to his mouth. Water gushed from between his lips instead to create a swirling whirlpool in the middle of the sea of purple.

"Acid," Kakashi called to Sakura and Naruto. "It'll burn whatever its user wishes it to consume. Don't move until I wash it away."

"A water user, eh?" the young man continued. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stood straight. "No problem. Yasuda! Do it!"

The larger man – Yasuda – nodded his head silently and clapped his hands together with a guttural grunt.

"What's going on?" Naruto whispered to Sakura, his eyes facing the acid.

Sakura's eyes widened.

The acid was bubbling into waves. Geysers erupted suddenly, shooting into the air, before they began to take the shape of animals. Of dragons.

"Naruto, don't let go of my hand!" Sakura screeched as she yanked on his hand to pull him to the end of the pillar.

"What?! What's going on?!"

The dragons flew for Sakura and Naruto like sharks jumping from the water for their prey. When they missed, they landed back into the sea of acid, only to jump out again for a second try.

Kakashi was trying his best to counter the acid with water. He had managed to get his own puddle of water going, from which he created his own dragon that was desperately trying to launch itself at the acidic dragons.

"It'll take a lot more water than that to dilute the acid!" the young man cackled. He was walking on the acid. _Walking_ on it.

"So you control its burning ability to your will?" Kakashi commented casually. "Is it a bloodline limit of yours?"

"Sharingan Kakashi," grunted Yasuda, as if it was an answer to a question Kakashi had never asked.

"There's no saying you can't copy it," the young man continued. "Will you put it to good use? It's not like you can combat acid with acid."

"Don't be so hasty, Ryosuke."

"I'm just having a little fun, Yasuda. Battles like these don't come often."

Naruto was ignoring the conversation going on. He was standing still, eyes shut in deep thought. He wanted to show Kakashi that being blind did not hinder his strategic thinking. But what to come up with? What would be their next move?

They had to get to the Feudal Lord. He was definitely behind the door Sakura had told him about – the one she had been flung from. After all, why else would they put a resistant seal on the door? They would have used it as a trap had it been empty, but they didn't.

The door was, however, half-covered in a sea of acid. That would mean Naruto would have to move through the barred window on the upper half of the door, but that would also mean moving across acid that he could not touch.

So how . . .?

He heard the sudden clash of metal on metal and knew Kakashi had been engaged in combat again, with Yasuda, no doubt. The jerk of his wrist told him that Sakura had spotted danger, and they were moving to the other end of the earthen column that acted as their boat on the sea of lava.

"What's going on now?" Naruto asked her.

"The man – Ryosuke – he dove into the acid." Her voice sounded worried. "I think he's going to try and tip the column. We've got to get out of here."

_Think, think, think, Naruto!_

They had to get something that they could step on. Something that could disintegrate in acid without much repercussions.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Naruto grinned at his own ingenuity. "Sakura, point my hand in the direction of the Feudal Lord's cell," he told her, holding his hand out. He could tell she was smiling as well as she closed her warm fingers around his own and pointed in the opposite direction.

Clone by clone, he laid them out to create a chain of stepping platforms that would reach the door of the Feudal Lord. He and Sakura had to act quickly, however; the clones disappeared upon impact with the acid.

"You're a genius, Naruto."

"Not quite."

It was Ryosuke who had said that. Naruto turned in the direction of his voice, and wondered why Sakura had gasped as loudly as she had.

Sakura's eyes saw what she would properly call an "Acid Monster." There were no other names for what Ryosuke had turned into. He was walking across the sea of acid, engulfed completely in the purple substance to the point of where he had grown several feet in height and width, as if it were armor. And in the center of that armor was Ryosuke in all his cocky glory.

And he was advancing on them.

"Run! Sakura, run right now!"

"But Naruto –"

"Follow the clones! I'll stay on the platform!"

Sakura did not have a moment to panic. She did as she was told, letting go of Naruto's hand to run across the chain of clones laid out across the acid, each one disappearing in a puff of smoke the second her foot left his chest. Ryosuke roared in frustration, his movements too slow to reach her. Finding it futile, he moved for Naruto instead. How difficult could it be to fight a moronic, blind ninja?

Sakura narrowed her eyes to take in every tiny detail of the iron door in a split second. There was no longer a barrier around it, she observed from the way the sea of acid touched the iron door rather than stopped at some invisible force; Ryosuke must have forgotten about the barrier in his haste and so the acid had burned through it. Sakura had managed to reach the iron window at a sprint, crashing into it with a chakra-pumped fist so that she broke through the bars in a single charge and fell through. The jagged iron rods broke into her skin as she fell, tucking her head in before she fell to the floor so that she landed in a painful somersault.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

The voice had come from the corner, weary and hoarse. Sakura managed to gather herself to her hands and knees, bleeding and aching all over. She smirked at her triumph. Ryosuke would not dare to send the acid after her in fear of hurting the Feudal Lord, and so as long as she stayed within the cell, she was safe.

"Are you all right?"

Her emerald eyes squinted in the darkness. A figure was huddled in the corner.

"Feudal Lord?" she asked softly, crawling forwards.

"Watanabe Jun," was the reply. "And you, my dear? You have come to rescue me?"

He finally came into the light, and Sakura was taken aback. She had thought the Feudal Lord to be an old man, somewhere in his late sixties, with graying hair and a long beard. But what she came upon was so far from her thoughts that she stood in surprise for a few moments.

He was young – perhaps too young, as Gaara had been, but in his late twenties or early thirties. His appearance was bedraggled: the enemy had taken his clothes and had given him nothing but a wrinkled yukata and a pair of shorts so that his long, slender legs were bare. Sakura could see his shivering visibly. Days in the basement with fever had given him a sallow tinge to his unblemished skin, and a goatee of coarse dark brown hair had grown on his lower face. Honey-colored eyes looked up at Sakura from a curtain of long, light brown hair.

"Forgive me," he spoke hoarsely. "I cannot show you the respect a lady of yourself needs with a bow."

"Please, Watanabe-san. Allow me to break the shackles. As soon as my teammates are done fighting, we will get you out of here and back to Konoha," she tried to reassure him.

He smiled at her dazzlingly. "I see Konoha has sent the best to rescue me. I must thank your Hokage. Are your teammates as beautiful as you are, my dear?"

"They're male," deadpanned Sakura. She was too busy inspecting the shackles to bother to look up again to be wooed by his lines.

"Beauty can go both ways."

Outside of the cellar, Kakashi was straining his Sharingan to the maximum, not yet in its Mangekyou stage. Yasuda had proven to be agile despite his size. He moved with speeds that Kakashi could barely keep up with; the silver-haired man was lucky for the small size of the room, or else he would not be able to see the man at all.

_From behind . . .!_

He ducked quickly, the blade of a sword skimming the tips of his hair. Strands of silver fell before his eyes as he sprung up in a jump, his hands making another quick succession of seals as his eyes searched for Yasuda. Raikiri generated at his fingertips and he closed his right eye, Yasuda's body in his sight.

He leaned forward and took off in a sudden sprint across the wall of the room, his right hand at his side, murderous intention darkening his expression. The Raikiri surged from his hand as he stretched it forward when Yasuda had come within his reach, and he fisted his fingers to brace for the impact –

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Blood splattered to the ground.

And Naruto fell.

The boy fell from the wall to the shrinking column floating in the acid in agony. Kakashi stepped back, eyes wide in horror, blood staining his fisted hand where Raikiri had once surged proudly. And Yasuda laughed in chilling triumph.

The man had switched his positions with Naruto at the last second, effectively saving himself from the devastating power of Kakashi's Raikiri. Kakashi had noticed this shift too late; his charge forwards had been too fast to stop himself, and so all he could do was move his hand however much he could from the original target of the body's heart, and try to pull back.

And so Kakashi had sent his Raikiri right into Naruto's shoulder.

The same shoulder Naruto had injured before.

But there was no time to call out for his fallen teammate. There was only time to dodge the sudden ball of acid sent hurtling at his head from the monster Ryosuke had turned into.

"One by one," the thin man taunted with a laugh. "Two down, one to go."

Even Yasuda made swift appearances and swipes of his sabers. All Kakashi could do was dodge. They gave him no time to rest, no time to hesitate, no time to check up on Naruto, who hadn't moved from his spot.

The blond blinked away the tears that had formed. He was sure that if he could see, the images would be doubled. The pain was agonizing. Blood poured over his fingers as he held tightly to his shoulder in a pitiful attempt to stop the blood flow. But he would not let that stop him. He had to keep moving. He had to continue with the mission – he was a ninja, damn it! A simple wound would not hinder his progress.

Cheering himself on silently in his mind, he managed to bring himself to his knees, still holding his shoulder. With shaking legs, he tried to stand up. Blood dripped to the column, _drip, drip, drip_, as he straightened himself.

His eyes were red.

Kakashi watched from the furthest wall of the room as Naruto called upon shadow clone after shadow clone, standing alone on the floating column in the center of the room. The blond was gathering them in a huddle. A huddle surrounded by ominous orange chakra.

"What is he doing?" Ryosuke wondered aloud.

"Whatever it is, stop him."

There was no time to stop him. In the midst of the clones, Naruto had already set up his plan: two enormous balls of Rasengan. They swirled in the palms of five clones each, suspended in the air. Kakashi watched in interest. He could not tell what Naruto's plan would be, but was anxious to find out what the #1 Most Unpredictable Ninja would do.

"No!"

Ryosuke began to throw a flurry of acid balls at where the blind boy stood. Each one was deflected by a spawning clone that took the hit. Kakashi smiled.

"You're blind!" shouted Ryosuke in frustration, now desperately flinging the balls. "How can you detect them?!"

But Naruto ignored him, his mind too fogged with agony to care. He ordered the clones to carry on with the plan, and slowly, the two groups holding the balls of Rasengan pushed their hands forward, over the floating column and towards the sea of acid.

Kakashi's mouth opened in a knowing "O".

As the balls of Rasengan continued their slow descent to the sea, their spinning spun the acid as well. It stuck to the outside of the balls of Rasengan like a snowball gathering snow rather than flying in random directions as a blender would have done. The sea of acid began to lower as the Rasengan balls kept swirling and swirling, gathering more layers of acid as they continued.

"Kakashi-sensei!" a fanged Naruto shouted in the opposite direction Kakashi had been standing.

"He's busy, kid!" Yasuda replied just before he thrust a saber at the mentioned man. It barely skimmed his hip.

"Not entirely."

Kakashi faked a smile at Yasuda and turned to Naruto with his hands forming the seal for a water-based jutsu. Yasuda was keeping his cool, but Ryosuke was getting desperate. His acidic armor had disintegrated and he now stood on the acid with his normal feet, walking restlessly as he began a long succession of seals.

"Quickly, Yasuda! Don't let him – you fucking idiot! Stop him!"

Water gushed from Kakashi's uncovered mouth in a thick stream aimed for the rotating balls of acid-covered Rasengan. By then, the sea of acid had shrunken to half a meter; two and half meters of acid swam in the currents of Rasengan.

"Stop him! Stop him! Stop him!" Ryosuke began belching acid, but his depleting chakra could no longer create the sea he once had. The purple substance fell from his mouth in thin puddles as if he was drooling.

_SCHWIP._

_ Plop._

Naruto heard the noise. His heart stopped.

"Kakashi-sensei?!"

There was no reply. The water that had been gushing out had stopped, and a sickeningly ominous laughter echoed in the room.

Kakashi's head had been sliced cleanly off of his shoulders.

_Poof!_

. . . Or not.

"What?!" Yasuda said in surprise. "There was no way that could have been a clone! There was no time! . . . Unless you were fighting as a clone from the beginning –"

"Yo."

Kakashi suddenly appeared with a taunting smile on his face right before he pulled his fist back and punched Yasuda with a Raikiri-powered fist. The large man skidded across the sea of acid and crashed through the iron door. The metal barrier came down with a loud _bang!_ that shook the earth.

Sakura had been alarmed at the sudden breaking of the iron door. She saw the burly man motionless in the rubble, his chest sparking with what she could only assume was Kakashi's Raikiri.

"Stay back, please," she told Jun, outstretching his arm and poised in case the motionless man decided to get up. She did not intend to sit around and wait to see if he regained consciousness. She was going to take matters into her own hand.

Outside, Kakashi looked for Naruto.

"Release the Rasengan, Naruto!" he shouted.

Ryosuke let out a shout of indignation. "Yasuda!" he screamed. "Yasuda, wake up, you idiot! Wake up! Do something!"

It was not Yasuda who emerged from the cell. It was Sakura, carrying the Feudal Lord over her shoulder.

"Where is Yasuda?" Ryosuke demanded, his eyes bulging in insanity. "What have you done?" His head whipped back to Naruto. "I _dare_ you to release that acid and watch your friends burn!"

"Naruto, it's okay." Kakashi had jumped from the wall and landed next to Naruto on the floating column. He put a hand on the real Naruto's good shoulder. "Trust me. Release the Rasengan."

So Naruto did.

The spinning chakra dissipated. The acid held in midair, as if gravity had yet to take action, and landed like crashing waves onto the shallow sea below, splashing the walls with its thick body. Sakura fled from the sea and quickly scaled the walls, the Feudal Lord still on her back. The acid hit her body full-on and she was ready to scream.

But it did not hurt.

It merely tingled. Her body felt warm, but there was no burning. It felt as if she was being sprayed by hot water and nothing else.

The acid had been diluted.

When Sakura reached the floating column, Kakashi gave her a visual signal, and then told Naruto, "We're heading out. I'll speak to you when we're back at the cabin."

Naruto heard the tone of Kakashi's voice and beamed. But he frowned again when Sakura shouted, "Naruto, you're bleeding!" He had completely forgotten. The adrenaline pumping through his veins had numbed the sudden pain, but the natural anesthetic was wearing out, and Naruto felt the room spin beneath his feet from the blood loss.

"Explanations outside, Sakura. Right now, we need to get out of here. Ignore the enemy." He swept Naruto off of his feet and put him in a bridal carry, beginning to run. Naruto did not protest.

There were no greetings. No formalities, no speaking, no nothing. They pumped chakra into their feet and ran. The Feudal Lord was silent and patient on Sakura's strong shoulders, not even voicing his discomfort or embarrassment. He simply watched as the crumbling walls blurred as they ran, as snakes popped out of corners, as enemies were flung from side to side, as blood stained the floors.

He saw, in his ever-bouncing vision, a figure abruptly appear in front of them. The boy – _man? _he thought – was riding on the back of a snake the size of a rhinoceros, and he turned around to lock eyes with Kakashi.

_"Follow me,"_ he had seemed to say, but no words came out of his mouth. Kakashi, nonetheless, nodded, and the entire team turned sharply to the left. They were being led, Jun noticed, by a group of snakes, each of different size and color.

The walls around them were crumbling at a faster pace, and Sasuke cursed inwardly. The snakes had not understood him correctly when he had told them not to tear down the walls. It was the first time his lack of voice had failed him in anything, and he was beginning to realize too late the hindrance of being mute.

_"There's a ditch up ahead that leads to a lower level,"_ he turned around to tell Kakashi. _"There are four levels to this underground area, and we're on the third from the bottom. We have to be careful."_

Kakashi caught the gist of what Sasuke had been trying to say, his eyes not focusing correctly from the amount of bouncing it took to run and balance Naruto in his arms at the same time. He did, however, catch the concerned glint in Sasuke's eyes as he shot a fleeting glance towards the blond, and he smirked.

They reached the platform Sasuke had been trying to indicate, but not with the best timing. Sasuke made it across the platform and to lower ground with a leap on the snake, not bothering to turn around to see if everyone had followed step. Sakura moved quickly after him, and Kakashi was behind her in step. The ground, however, decided it wanted to crumble and give way to reveal the gaping hole that lead to the lowest level of the base.

And Sakura was in the center of that crumbling ground.

She shrieked instinctively when she lost her footing and felt herself falling without any sign of landing. Kakashi, taken by surprise and weariness, had leaned forwards to try and regain his balance; in the act, he had accidentally let Naruto slip from his hands.

And now Sakura, the Feudal Lord, and Naruto were falling down, down, down.

Sasuke finally turned around at the sound of the shriek, and his eyes widened, his hand reaching out to his falling – comrades? classmates? teammates? – with a silent scream.

But they were not falling.

They were flying.

The flapping of wings was barely heard in the rumbling chaos that erupted all around the falling base, but it was there, and it was coming from a bird that was rising from the darkness of the hole. Naruto was unconscious and safe of the broad back of the bird, and the Feudal Lord was stark white with fright, eyes wide and shaking, but safe.

And Sakura?

Sakura had landed in the arms of Sai.

He smiled at her as his drawing flew to stable land – a wide, fake smile.

"Hello, ugly."


	7. Blasphemous

**Author's Note:** I fail at life, guys.

Naaah, just kidding. In all honesty, I'm running out of pre-prepared chapters (I think I only have one or two left), and I barely have any time to work on them. I'm picking up my pace, however, and using any spare time I get to work on it.

Thank you all for reading, reviewing, and most of all, for being patient.

**Chapter Seven**  
…**:::Blasphemous:::…**

Sakura was speechless for a moment. She was still taking in Sai's sudden appearance. There she was, in the arms of the last person she had expected to appear and save her, floating on an ink bird.

Kakashi wanted nothing more than to ask questions, but the ground was still collapsing. "Questions later!" he shouted to Sai. "We need to get out of here _now."_

"I'll lead the way," Sai said smoothly, still holding Sakura in a bridal carry. He was standing firmly on the back of his own creation. "I know the exit."

Kakashi nodded and allowed Sai to take the reins. Sasuke was not too happy. As a matter-of-fact, Sasuke was seething, and he didn't know why. It couldn't have been because Sai had been the one to save Sakura. Of course not. Why would he be angry at that? It couldn't have been because he was jealous of how Sai had come in so effortlessly and unharmed when it had taken Sasuke a battle and a bucket of blood loss to infiltrate. Of course not. That would be ridiculous.

So Sasuke told himself that it was because Sai had taken the lead from him like he was some big shot.

Yeah. That was it.

The bird swooped overhead, slowing down when it passed Sasuke and his snake. The Uchiha watched it glide smoothly down the collapsing halls. He felt a sudden presence behind him and instinctively jerked around with his sword drawn, only to come face-to-face with Kakashi.

The man was eyeing him with both of his eyes, one eyebrow raised. "This is no time for petty anger to overwhelm the necessity of the mission." He seemed amused, and it only made Sasuke angrier. When Sasuke had turned around, Kakashi's eyes flickered to the wound on the back of his thigh, but said nothing.

Light shone brightly ahead of them. The exit was but a few meters ahead; it was a door that had been blasted open so that a gaping hole replaced it instead. Sai's bird passed through it in a graceful drift and soared upwards. Sasuke's snake slithered out, followed by Kakashi.

"Change of plans," the silver-haired man spoke when Sai had returned to the ground.

"You can put me down, Sai. I'm not injured." Sakura seemed somewhat annoyed, and this put a smirk on Sasuke's face.

Kakashi spoke over the movement of his teammates. "We're going to stop at the cabin again shortly before we head to the cave. The enemy is distracted right now with the collapse of their base. Sasuke's summons did a good job of keeping a majority of them in check, and the ones that have been overlooked will be too busy with the base to follow us. By the time they get a team together, we should be on our way to the cave. We do, however, need to stop to get ourselves healed and to offer explanations. I'll lead the way."

Sai dismissed his bird; its figure would be easily seen in the sky, and the trees were too tightly-knit to maneuver through them. He carried Naruto instead (the blond was officially unconscious by then). Kakashi took to carrying the Feudal Lord to arrive at the cabin faster. Sakura and Sasuke took to the trees; Sasuke had dismissed his snake as well in fear of leaving tracks to follow despite the now-heavily-falling snow.

Sakura noticed the blood that was coming off of Sasuke as they jumped through the trees. She thought it was the enemy's blood at first, but she noticed the heavy limp in his steps and followed the blood up to an embarrassing tear in his pants. She said nothing.

They reached the cabin in a matter of minutes. Kakashi turned his head, his eye swiveling to check for any sign of the enemy before they entered. When they made sure there were none, they piled into the cabin and shut the door on the cold.

"Now," Kakashi said, breathing a sigh of what he would call relief. "First matters. Sakura, I hit Naruto with my Raikiri. He's in a lot of pain right now. I need you to administer an anesthetic of some sort and then heal him as much as you can. We need to be quick."

All she had gotten from his quick speech was "I hit Naruto", "Raikiri", and "anesthetic", but she understood what Kakashi was trying to get at. She nodded her head and immediately moved to the blond that had begun to regain consciousness.

Kakashi turned to Jun next and bowed deeply. "Please, excuse our late introductions."

Jun, in return, bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement. "I understand the situation, and I thank you deeply for rescuing me. I am Watanabe Jun."

"Hatake Kakashi. Our medic-nin is Haruno Sakura, the boy she is healing is Uzumaki Naruto, this is Sai, and that is Uchiha Sasuke."

Jun's eyes glinted with the familiarity of the names. "I have the honor of being rescued by Sharingan Kakashi and one of the sole survivors of the Uchiha clan. What a day this is. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Excuse our haste, Watanabe-san –"

"Please!" Jun quickly interrupted. "No need for formalities. Call me Jun."

"– Jun-san, all will be well soon. We will be travelling from this cabin to a cave on the side of the mountains very soon, where we will be staying for a day until the enemy has lost all trace of us. You will be escorted to our Hokage for a meeting, and we will further escort you back to your country. Do you have any problems with this before we carry on?"

Jun laughed heartily and shook his head. "I cannot possibly go against the planning of my saviors. I am eternally grateful to your Hokage. Please, by all means, do what you must. I am happy to be out of that place." Kakashi eyed the man warily. He seemed quite the gentleman, but something mischievous danced in his honeyed eyes. He brought his own eyes to the newest teammate.

"Sai," he said with a wry smile. "I see you're off of your mission."

"Off and on," he replied. "I returned to Konoha where the Hokage informed me of the mission and your position." He smiled. "It seems I came at the right moment."

"Off and on?"

"I will be aiding you on this mission for a few days until I am called back to complete my other mission. Off and on. I must ask that you do not rely too heavily on me. I am here for assistance with enemies. Excuse my unreliability."

"Is that Sai?"

Naruto had regained complete consciousness. He managed to sit up, Sakura still fussing over and working on his arm. His unseeing eyes stared blankly in the direction of Sai and he grinned. Sai, however, cocked his head to the side.

"Is there something wrong with Naruto's eyes?"

Kakashi laughed nervously, returning to an innocent character. "There's something I need to explain. You see, I'm trying this new training method . . ."

They spent longer on explanations than Kakashi would have liked, but at the end of them all, everything was cleared up. Naruto had been debriefed of what had happened after he had lost consciousness. Sai and Jun had been informed of the training method, to which Sai stared on indifferently and Jun (wearing fresh clothing from Kakashi's spares and a cloak over his shivering body) laughed heartily once more.

"So I will always have one blind ninja protecting me? Oh goodness, Hatake-san. You are quite the odd fellow."

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched. He wasn't sure whether or not that had been a compliment.

Jun gave a terrible sneeze all of a sudden, vibrating his shivering body. His sallow face had turned red with fever that threatened to turn his asthma into something greater. Sakura was quick to notice this; she reached into her medical supplies for medicine and a defaulted inhaler as Kakashi began to explain the oncoming journey.

It had been decided that Sai would not take part in the training method since he would constantly be leaving and reentering the mission. It had also been decided that they needed to head out to the cave. Naruto's shoulder was almost healed, but they could not wait for its entire healing. Sakura gave him a painkiller and tightly wrapped the wound with a promise to heal it completely when they met in the cave. Kakashi quickly asked Sai to send a message to the Hokage that they had completed the first phase of their mission and would proceed to bring the Feudal Lord to Konoha.

Before the time came to leave, Kakashi pulled Naruto to the side for a quiet conversation.

"I wanted to tell you that you have made me proud with what you did to fight the enemy back there," he whispered quickly. "Your quick-thinking was excellent. I would not have come up with that strategy myself, and the way you pulled through with that shoulder of yours was like a true ninja." He clapped Naruto on his good shoulder. "You'll make a great Hokage, Naruto."

If Naruto's grin could get wider, it would reach opposite ends of the ninja world.

The time came to leave. They would split up to reach to the cave in order to divert any potential enemies from their destination. Kakashi would be heading west first with a clone acting as the Feudal Lord. Sai and Sakura would have the real Feudal Lord, and they would take to the skies on one of Sai's creations; Kakashi had chosen that particular pair to maximize Jun's protection. The enemy had an unlikely chance of taking to the skies, Sai was highly skilled, and Sakura, also highly skilled, could heal injuries should Jun receive any. That left Naruto and Sasuke together, a pair that Kakashi was also happy with. With Naruto hopped up on painkillers, Sasuke would have to look out for the two of them, something that Kakashi found achievable with his level of skill.

"Sasuke," Kakashi deadpanned as they were getting ready to leave, "you're bleeding."

Silence.

"That's a nasty wound."

Silence.

"You should get that healed."

Sasuke turned his head to his former sensei and raised an eyebrow. _"There's no time,"_ he mouthed quickly. _"The enemy is coming. It's nothing that can't wait until we get to the cave."_

Kakashi gave no nagging retaliation. If he had really wanted to have Sasuke's wound checked, he would have pointed it out from the very beginning. Despite the limp it gave the Uchiha, however, it was not a major obstacle. And it also allowed the Uchiha to regain some of his natural attitude, to Kakashi's amusement.

With the sun peeking over the horizon, and the snow picking up speed and power, they headed out.

Temperatures had fallen, even with the morning sun coming along. The snow moved in flurries. It twirled, it swirled, it danced along with Sakura's hair and bit at Sai's bare fingers as he sat on the broad back of the bird and crossed his legs.

"You're drawing at a time like this?"

Sai had taken out a blank piece of paper and had begun to ink the scenery around him as Jun looked curiously on.

"The enemy is pitiful," he said, outlining the trees. "They are barely a challenge at all. I see no risk of being attacked."

_That's because you came after _we'd_ finished battling! _Sakura thought angrily after staring at his lips, but her anger quickly diminished when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"So, Sakura," she read off of Jun's lips. "You are deaf?"

She nodded.

"You must have amazing skill at reading lips, then. Hatake is quite the man, is he not? I've heard great things about him. Oh yes, Sai, I must thank you for allowing me to borrow your cloak."

Jun had wrapped the winter cloak tightly around his body as the wind howled at him. Sai waved his hand dismissively.

"I read in a book somewhere that it is an act of kindness to lend people things."

"Excuse Sai. He's . . . different."

"No, no." Jun's eyes twinkled handsomely. "I admire different. Your hair is rather exquisite, my dear. Such a beautiful color."

Sakura laughed. "And you're quite the gentleman, Jun-san. Tell me about your village. I've never been there."

"Ah, please, tell me what it is like to be beneath Hatake's training method, first. I am most intrigued. I am especially interested in the Uchiha; I have heard much controversy surrounding him."

Sai's eyebrow twitched in amusement. Sakura's eyebrow twitched in anger.

"I would rather hear about your village."

_Or stab my eye with a fork._

Naruto was falling behind.

The blind blond numbed with painkillers proved no match for snow. He would stop completely from time to time, losing Sasuke's chakra traces and having to call out weakly for the brunet. Sasuke grew tired of this and decided to pull on Naruto's shirt instead, but the whiskered boy would stumble.

And so, growing officially fed up, Sasuke did what he would not do in public: he picked up Naruto into a bridal carry.

"I can walk!" Naruto protested, struggling faintly in Sasuke's arms.

_You need to run, not walk_, Sasuke contented himself with thinking, in too much haste to write on Naruto's palm. He was surprised that that was all the protesting the blond had done. He expected punching, kicking, and possibly even screaming, but Naruto barely moved at all. Sasuke frowned. The pain in his leg at the weight of the boy in his arms made his frown deepen. But what turned his frown into a full-on grimace was the fact that they were being followed.

The enemy was lurking behind them, Sasuke could sense. They had yet to pinpoint their exact location, but Sasuke did not want to take the risk and wait to be found. He knew that if they continued the way they were, the enemy would follow them all the way back to the cave, and then they would be trapped.

So Sasuke did what his instincts told him to, and he headed into the wrong cave.

He hoped to distract the ninja away from the original trail. The original cave was ahead by a few kilometers. If the enemy was still on their trail, they would be given no hint to the real destination. Sasuke walked deeper into the hole in the mountain, finding that it was deeper than he expected. He eased Naruto down on the cold floor and listened in the silence.

"Where are we?"

Silence ensued, and Naruto grew uneasy.

"Sasuke?" he called out again, beginning to grope in his darkness. "Sasuke, hey. Where are we? Sasuke?"

A hand covered his mouth, a finger flicked his ear, and for a while, all Naruto could hear was the sound of his own wildly thumping heartbeat. Sasuke was listening for the enemy, but they were not there. He breathed a sigh of relief and finally took hold of Naruto's palm.

O-T-H-E-R C-A-V-E. D-I-V-E-R-T E-N-E-M-Y. S-T-A-Y A-W-H-I-L-E.

From where they sat, they were too far in to see the mouth of the cave. Sasuke did it as a precaution, just in case the enemy decided to give a quick glance into the cave. Minutes of silence rolled by.

"I think we should leave now," Naruto whispered after a while. "If we're not there on time, Kakashi is going to get worried."

W-A-I-T.

So they waited until Naruto grew uneasy again. Moments before he was about to speak, all light in the cave suddenly blinked out of existence. Naruto felt nothing out of the ordinary, but Sasuke sat up in alert, and it was that jerking movement that Naruto heard.

"What? What's wrong?"

The light had been coming in from the mouth of the cave. Sasuke's heart began to speed up slightly at thoughts of what could have possibly happened. Had the enemy sealed them in? Had they found them? What if they were inside of the cave at that very moment?

He groped for Naruto's backpack and found the matches.

"Sasuke, what's going on?"

W-A-I-T.

The Uchiha struck a match to light his way, stealthily moving through the darkness. He had established that they were alone in the cave. So what could have possibly clogged the light –?

Sasuke cursed.

He threw the match angrily to the floor, storming forward and pounding his fists against the barrier that had blocked the sun and effectively trapped them inside of the cave:

Snow.

Sasuke was confused. Had an avalanche happened? Had they simply not felt the quake? How could the snow have gotten there? How thick was it? He beat it angrily with his fists. Naruto called out to him weakly from where he had left him, and he felt a strong sense of duty to return and tell him what had happened.

They were trapped.

T-R-A-P-P-E-D, he told the blond. S-N-O-W. S-T-A-Y H-E-R-E. I-L-L C-H-E-C-K.

He was getting frustrated with everything. He was frustrated with the cave, with the plan, with Sai, with the snow, and with his disability. Trapped in a cave and having to jerk Naruto's palm out from him just to speak to him? Writing out all of his letters with painstaking slowness? Sasuke was ready to plunge Chidori straight through the chest of someone.

He had to figure out what to do with the snow, first. He needed to see how deep it was. If it was thin enough, he could blast it away with a fire jutsu in one go and they would be on their way. But if it was too thick for a single blast, he would have to dig through it manually. Using fire continuously would burn up their limited amount of oxygen in the cave.

He practically dove into the snow. He clawed away at it, his cloak cast aside, trying to find the other end of it. Chidori was out of the question; one more large burst of chakra and he could die. A part of him was thankful that Naruto could not see him. He supposed he must have looked rather silly and awkward with his body bent over, shoveling at the snow with freezing fingertips.

His body was about halfway surrounded by snow when he realized how futile fire would be. The snow was too thick, and he was too cold. He quickly pulled himself out. The snow that clung to his shirt was already beginning to melt as he made his way back to where Naruto sat in alert.

"Your breathing is irregular," whispered Naruto when Sasuke knelt by him and took his palm. "You're freezing! And wet!"

T-R-A-P-P-E-D R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R?

"Your fingers are shaking too much. I can't understand what you're trying to say."

Now Sasuke was beyond frustrated. He thrust Naruto's hand away and weaved his fingers angrily through his hair, wanting nothing more than to scream.

_We're trapped inside of a fucking cave!_ he wanted to tell Naruto. _I'm freezing my ass off, but I can't start a damn fire because we'll die! And we've got to keep digging our way out of the snow before we use up all of the oxygen!_

"Okay, okay, calm down."

Naruto could feel the frustration radiating off of the Uchiha. He put his hands gently on the boy's body, feeling for his shoulders to calm him.

"I get it. We're trapped. Snow, right? It's always snow. It's never rain, or sand, or sleet. Just plain snow." A pause. "I'm guessing by your frustration that it's too thick to blow away with fire, right? So we've got to dig ourselves out. I get it. Am I right?"

Sasuke was taken aback momentarily. Naruto had figured out everything Sasuke had wanted to tell him on his own, through minor deduction. The Uchiha felt slightly guilty at assuming that the blond would live up to his hair color. He reached out to lace his hands between the sun-spun locks of the whiskered boy and moved his head up and down. Yes, he was right. Even with the blinding darkness, Sasuke could still see the triumphant grin Naruto gave.

"I'll tell you what. I'll start digging first, okay? You've got to dry yourself off. You can have my cloak. Get out of those clothes and put the cloak on. Where's yours? Never mind, don't answer that."

Sasuke shook his head, and then shook Naruto's to get his point across. He reached for the blond's hand and shakily moved it so that it rested above his injured shoulder.

"It doesn't hurt _that_ badly. I'll dig with my other hand."

Naruto felt his head get shaken again, and sighed. He would stay still until Sasuke least expected it, and then he would secretly work away at the snow that barred them in.

Sasuke peeled his now-drenched shirt away from his skin, involuntarily shivering as his bare flesh made contact with the subzero temperature. Just as the black cloth revealed the bare of his back, Naruto's hand came down upon it in a friendly slap.

They both froze. Naruto's words died on his lips.

Sasuke could feel Naruto's hand on his back, unmoving, the pads of the blond's fingers sensitive to the prominent ridges that stood out on Sasuke's skin. He felt the fingers begin to move suddenly. Each finger traced a path like a canoe following the current of a river, moving over his shoulder blades, down his spine, lower, lower . . .

Sasuke caught Naruto's wrist without turning around.

_"What are you doing?"_ he mouthed breathily.

Naruto heard the puff of breath and guessed the words that had escaped Sasuke's lips. He did not speak for a while. His sightless eyes stared oddly at the bare of Sasuke's back, hand unmoving in the Uchiha's.

"Those scars," he whispered, voice wavering. "They're from the punishment, aren't they?"

Sasuke released Naruto's hand in favor of running his through his hair tiredly, reaching out in the darkness for Naruto's cloak. _Yes,_ he thought, nodding his head ever-so-slightly. Naruto could imagine the bitterness in his expression.

Sasuke fingered the cloak in his hands, but did not put it on.

_That's what happens when you're left to bleed with no one to heal you._

He shivered involuntarily when he felt Naruto's fingers tracing the scars again. He stayed still, feeling Naruto's hands brush against his skin. The proximity was unnervingly close, and Sasuke felt Naruto's warm breath against his skin. It felt strange.

_"Stop,"_ he breathed, squirming to remove Naruto's hands.

The blond's hands fell to his side. He whispered a quick apology and scooted away from Sasuke slightly. The Uchiha could sense the awkward discomfort, but his pride would not allow him to do anything about it. He hurriedly wrapped the cloak around him and stood up.

I-M O-N D-U-T-Y, he tried to write to Naruto. Even though the blond couldn't make out what he was trying to say, he nodded his head anyway to avoid any further frustration from Sasuke. He felt like he was constantly walking on eggshells around the Uchiha. Whatever he did, he always had to make sure Sasuke wouldn't get angry with him, and it was beginning to sadden the blond.

He understood that he was the only one Sasuke felt the most comfortable around, but Naruto no longer felt comfortable around Sasuke. He could no longer be at ease. Sasuke's patience was made of a shorter fuse, something that Naruto was not fond of.

His nose twitched at a familiar scent that Sasuke had left when he stood up.

"You're bleeding," he called out suddenly to the darkness. "Sasuke?"

He reached his hands out for the boy, but all he got was a handful of air. Naruto stood up instead and felt the rocky walls for the path to Sasuke. A hand to his chest stopped him.

D-O-N-T W-O-R-R-Y.

Above all, Sasuke wanted to prevent the situation from further awkwardness, especially since the location of the wound was somewhere Naruto should not be touching. He had trusted the cold temperatures to slow the flow of blood from the wound; he would tie it later, when Naruto would surely be asleep.

Naruto was silent again. He nodded his head.

Anything to calm Sasuke.

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm getting worried."

Sakura turned around to face her sensei, her eyebrows up in concern. She, Sai, and Jun had made it to the cave without difficulties, meeting Kakashi. They had set up temporary camp, complete with a fire and sandwiches Kakashi had made at the cabin. Two sandwiches were never touched.

"It's been an hour. They can't possibly be this late."

"Perhaps it is because Naruto is blind," Jun offered innocently from next to the fire.

"No," said Kakashi. "Sasuke is there to help him. They're not stupid. They are most likely not here now for a good reason. We shouldn't worry. They will be here."

That did not ease Sakura's heart in the least. She knew they weren't stupid, but Naruto was injured (and so was Sasuke), and the snow had increased in strength. She was worried.

About both of them.

_"Scratch it off. Go ahead. Try."_

_ Sccccccrrrratch. _Nails bit through skin. Blood welled and flowed.

_"One for every person you hurt."_

_ "That's a lot of people."_

A laugh. _"I know."_

_ Smack! Sccccccrrrratch. Schwick._ Metal bit through skin. Blood welled and flowed.

_"Can you see anything? Shake your head. Shake your fucking head!"_

_ "Get the fuck up!"_

_ "Don't look at me that way, you filthy traitor!"_

_ Smack! Sccccccrrrratch._

Naruto heard the quickening of breath suddenly. He lifted his head in alert, turning to the sound. It could only be Sasuke, he knew. The sound of his own feet against the cold, hard floor echoed eerily in the cave, and Naruto found himself shivering from the heavy atmosphere that suddenly pressed on his shoulders.

He slowed himself down when Sasuke's breathing had gotten louder and he bent down so that he was crawling along the floor on his hands and knees, feeling carefully for Sasuke's body. The boy had fallen – asleep? Unconscious? Naruto couldn't remember the last time Sasuke had slept. He was stretched out on the floor with his head against one arm. Naruto knelt closer to what he assumed was Sasuke's face and felt the uneven breathing puff onto his cheek.

_A nightmare?_ he thought. _But if I wake him up, he'll keep working._

Naruto bit his lip. He wasn't going to wake Sasuke.

Instead, the blond felt around for the cloak he knew Sasuke had cast aside so that he could bring it upon the shivering figure on the floor. The Uchiha stirred slightly in his sleep, his eyebrows furrowing when the cloak made contact with his body, but he did not wake. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

It would be his turn to start digging.

Kakashi had to admit that he was becoming somewhat uneasy. It had been three hours since they met at the cave, and Naruto and Sasuke still had yet to appear.

"We're supposed to be heading out now," he said as he turned around to face the others in the cave.

Jun straightened his back and smiled gently. "I understand the necessity to do things on time," he spoke softly, "but we should wait for the boys. At least for another hour. We are safe in this cave."

Sakura smiled as well. "Your countrymen must love you, Jun-san."

"Have you read _How to Deal with Gullible People?_" asked Sai innocently, holding up his own copy. "It gives excellent tactics to woo others. I have yet to try, but you seem to have the technique down."

Jun laughed heartily. He took the book from Sai and flipped through a few pages. "You read such books?"

"Sai is trying to express emotions better. It's been working well so far." Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Except for the nickname part."

Kakashi smiled at the conversation. He was sitting at the mouth of the cave, book in hand, flipped to somewhere in the middle. His eyes, however, were on the forest in front of him.

_Where are you?_

"S-S-S-Sasuke, wake up."

_What?_

"C-c-c-c-come o-on."

Sasuke opened one eye. When he saw Naruto's face, he opened the other. He could _see_ Naruto's face – clearly. It wasn't pitch-black. The whiskered boy standing over him was shivering violently, his lips blue and his teeth chattering noisily. Sasuke sat up in alarm and looked around.

Light was pouring through a hole in the snow that had blocked the mouth of the cave.

_"How -?"_

"C-clones," Naruto managed to say as if expecting the question. His shivering was terrible. "I t-t-told them n-not to breath s-s-s-o they wouldn't w-waste air. M-made n-n-new ones –"

He was silenced by something soft. A cloak had been thrown at his face, and he could feel another one being wrapped tightly around his body.

"No," he protested, but Sasuke continued wrapping the cloak around him. "Th-th-that's for you! You're n-not wearing _a-anything_ but u-u-underwear!"

_Shut up, Naruto!_ Sasuke screamed angrily in his mind. His own muscles were not working properly from the freezing temperatures, but Naruto was closer to a major case of hypothermia. He wrapped his hands tightly around the bundle he had put Naruto in, and Naruto silenced.

Snow fell gently outside. The sun was high in the sky, but its warmth did not reach the earth. Leaves swayed softly, nature was silent. A winter wonderland covered in a blanket of white laid just outside, and Naruto had opened the door to it.

Sasuke did not begin to praise Naruto on his ingenuity. He understood what the blond had done: he had spawned several clones to help him dig, but those clones were not allowed to breathe. Every time they ran out of breath, they disappeared, and Naruto generated new ones.

But Naruto gained the frostiness of each clone that disappeared, magnifying his freezing feeling by several times. Sasuke was trying to warm him up to prevent his heart from stopping, but trying to warm him up _slowly_ to prevent the boy from going into cardiac arrest. He couldn't simply create a fire lest he risk warming up Naruto too fast (and with the absence of wood or leaves, the fire would not last).

"Look," Naruto said with a quivering breath, removing Sasuke's hands from around him. His stuttering had died down, but his shivering had not. "T-take back your cloak, and l-let's g-g-get out of here. We've got t-to keep moving."

Sasuke agreed completely.

Except he could barely feel his left leg.

The wound had gotten worse with the cold, and now Sasuke could only drag his left leg along. Naruto took no notice. The blond removed one cloak from his body and held it out expectantly with a shaking hand.

"Y-you've got to lead me. I can't focus on ch-chakra."

_Just great_. Sasuke quickly stepped back into the clothes he had taken off; they had not dried, but he could not head out into open air with nothing but a cloak. The mission was getting worse by the second. He grabbed Naruto's backpack, his own, and Naruto's sleeve, and began to pull him out of the cave through the choppy hole in the snow.

Fresh air never smelled so good.

Sai raised his head when he saw Kakashi jerk upwards suddenly. He raised an eyebrow.

"Hatake-san?"

Sai's own movement caught the attention of Sakura and Jun by the fire, and the former stood up to stand next to Kakashi in curiosity. Her eyes widened in surprise.

Sasuke and Naruto were just about to reach the foot of the mountain. Sakura watched them stop, for some reason not continuing forward. Naruto fell backwards to land in the snow with his arms and legs spread, and Sasuke had leaned against a nearby tree and lifted his left leg slightly from the ground.

"They're exhausted," she read from Kakashi's lips just before the man unexpectedly leapt from the mouth of the cave.

Without even a word, she followed him down. The conditions of the boys became more and more obvious as she came closer to them. Naruto, still on the floor, was shivering more fiercely than Sakura had ever seen a person shake; he looked like he was having a seizure, but there was a content smile on his quivering lips. Sasuke, to the right of Naruto, was shivering as well, but not to the same extent as the blond. He had his eyes closed in obvious pain; from where, Sakura could not see, since the boy's body was hidden with the cloak.

"Kakashi-s-sensei?" Naruto suddenly called from the ground. Kakashi raised an eyebrow – he hadn't even come three feet of Naruto. "I-I know it's you. Man, am I _g-glad_ to s-s-h-hear you!"

Sasuke opened his eyes at the blond's voice, the surprised look in the obsidian orbs clearly saying that he had not sensed Kakashi at all. Sakura saw him push himself away from the tree and try to stand on his own, but he crumpled to the ground suddenly.

"Let's get you boys up to the cave." Kakashi bent down to help Naruto into a sitting position, but it was obvious the blond was not going anywhere on his own two feet. The silver-haired man took Naruto's good arm and slung it around his shoulder, holding the boy upright with a hand to his waist.

Sakura stood still for a while. Kakashi turned to stare at her with a knowing look in his eye, and then he winked, turning back to the struggling Uchiha.

"You can make it up to the mountain by yourself, right, Sasuke?" He received a look that said words he would not dare utter to his mother. "Well then, I'll see you up there. Coming, Sakura?"

_Is he kidding?_ Sakura raised her eyebrows in disbelief at her sensei, but he was already hopping away, Naruto tightly at his side.

"Y-you're crazy, Ka-Kakashi-sensei," Naruto stuttered. "He's hurt."

"I know he is. He's being stubborn. He needs to understand that we work as a team, so until he understands that, he'll be on his own with that wound." They reached the mountain in seconds. Sasuke was still where Kakashi had left him. "He'll learn the consequences of trying to heal that wound himself."

"You're t-t-twisted."

Kakashi laughed. "I know. It's fun, isn't it?"

Jun moved away from the fire and laid out a spare blanket as Kakashi came closer with Naruto hanging from his shoulder. "Set him down here," he said kindly. "He can have my blanket."

"Ah, no," Naruto refused politely. He was inwardly taken aback at the kindness of the Feudal Lord. "I'm f-fine by the fire. Really."

"I insist."

"I un-insist."

"Deny?" Sai corrected amusedly from the other side of the fire.

"What he said."

Jun smiled at the blind boy and took the blanket back slowly. "If you un-insist."

Naruto laughed.

"Oh?" Sai feigned interest. "Where is Sasuke? Did he get lost?"

"He's being stubborn," was all Kakashi offered as he came to sit by the fire. "How are you feeling, Naruto?"

"Warming up."

"Your lips are still blue."

Naruto felt a hand touch his lips lightly and he flinched ever-so-slightly. The touch was warm. It moved to his cheek until his face was being cupped by the hand. Sakura. Her touch brought more warmth within Naruto than the fire did and he suddenly felt drowsy.

"Rest up, Naruto. I'll get an explanation out of Sasuke when he gets here."

_If he gets here._

The only reason Kakashi was toying with his teammates was because he felt they were out of the complete danger zone. He could afford to have one of his teammates injured. He needed Sasuke to learn his lesson, damn it! The boy could not remain stubborn. It only led to frustration, and it was that frustration that was driving him away from the team.

Kakashi stared into the cackling fire in deep thought. It wasn't the first time he had thought about Sasuke's drive for staying in Konoha. What was keeping the Uchiha with them, when all he got out of it was more frustrations?

_Plop!_

A pebble fell to the floor from where it had struck Kakashi in the back of the head. The silver-haired man turned around and could not help the grin that slid beneath his mask.

"Ah. Sasuke. How nice of you to join us."

The Uchiha smirked as well, as if telling Kakashi, _You'll have to try harder than that._ But he did not move further into the cave. He stood still for a while, the pain in his leg practically blinding.

Naruto felt pain flare in his shoulder. Someone had touched it, and by the scent of apple shampoo, he guessed it was Sakura.

"Sorry, Naruto," he heard her sweet, soft voice whisper into his ear. "But I want to heal your shoulder before it gets infected."

It was a distraction. Sasuke noticed it from where he stood. Sakura was trying to divert her attention from him by putting it on Naruto, and the blond was taking it all in without the slightest complaint. Sasuke thought it was disgusting.

_Don't give him false hope,_ he tried to burn into her mind. _Anyone but him._

The sky had cleared. Snow no longer fell from the heavens, and silence still reigned over the winter wonderland. Wind was silent, no longer howling or blowing through the leaves. All across the forest, a blanket of snow silenced life, frosting the grass with a beautiful white glaze. The only thing that dared disturb the peace of nature was the noise of crunching snow beneath six pairs of feet.

Team 7 and the Feudal Lord had left the cave half an hour ago, when Naruto had warmed up and when Sasuke had hastily tied a string of cloth around his leg. With no imminent danger, three fatigued ninja, and one underfed Feudal Lord, Kakashi had suggested they walk to the next town rather than maneuver through the trees.

Their next destination was a village to the west of the cave. It was a village they had not visited on their original route to the base, and it would be the only village that would be new to them. Kakashi had said they would be backtracking on their original route, but he had planned to stop at this nearby village shortly to eat, rest, and create a larger gap between the enemies. However, they could not sleep overnight. Word was traveling underground about the rescue of the Feudal Lord, and the enemies would surely know their location if they stopped for too long.

The walk was quiet. Sai was straight-faced. He poked his fun at Naruto from time to time, but he grew easily bored without bickering to watch; he wasn't used to escort missions. It was all action for him, and walking was never one of his favorite pastimes. He contented himself with listening to Jun's stories. Naruto was right behind Sai with a blanket wrapped tightly over his cloak. He was lacking all enthusiasm to do anything. A cold was beginning to break down his body system and he moved sluggishly, a drunken smile on his face.

Sasuke was still in pain. His left leg dragged slightly when he walked, and he was putting all of his effort into keeping in step with Kakashi. It was working, so far. Kakashi kept an amused expression as he watched Sasuke struggle from the corner of his eye; of course, he felt somewhat guilty at gaining amusement from his teammate's misery, but the guilt quickly dissipated with each turn of a page from his infamous book. He wasn't cruel; he was being a sensei, something Sasuke had not had properly in a few years (Orochimaru did not count). And besides, he would never let Sasuke injure himself permanently – he knew when to stop.

Sakura was walking backwards with ease, watching Jun's lips as he told stories of his village. She laughed at all of the right places, her giggles always stifled and quiet. He told her stories of his brothers and sisters, of his mother, of the children in his town, and she listened with intent and awe and a shimmer in her eye.

They reached the town with no hassle. It was more of a farming village than a city. The entrance gate had not been towering like the one to Konoha, but rather a short, wooden fence with vegetable farms on either side. Sakura thought it was beautiful. Sasuke thought it was vulnerable. Naruto thought it smelled weird.

"You're new faces around here, aren't you?"

They turned their heads simultaneously to the voice. It was an old woman leaning over the wooden fence, a trowel in one hand and a basket of potatoes in her other. She waved to them, her wrinkled face crinkling her eyes.

Kakashi bowed. "We're looking for a motel to stay for a few hours. Would you mind pointing us in the right direction?"

The old woman's face seemed to brighten even more. "Oh, you're looking for a place to stay, are you? Well, come on! This town hasn't had guests in a while!"

She reached forward to link arms with Kakashi and began tugging him away. It was a comical sight. The old woman barely reached his shoulder, and there was a youthful bounce in her step. Kakashi was taken by surprise.

"Wait. No, ma'am, we don't mean to take you away from your work –"

"Aha! I _need_ an excuse to get away from my work, boyo! Come on, come on, don't be shy!" Her gnarled hands patted his stomach. "You're too thin!"

"Ma'am, I'm –"

"Hush, hush! I'll take you to the nearest motel. My friend works there, you see . . ."

Sakura and Naruto were just about to burst into a fit of giggles. It had been a while since they had been in the presence of an eccentric old woman, and since they had witnessed Kakashi get so flustered. Sai cocked his head to the side.

"Do all of them act that way?"

The old woman turned around, her arm still linked with Kakashi's. "You all look absolutely exhausted. Where did you come from?"

"Konoha, ma'am," Sakura was more than happy to reply.

"Konoha! That's _miles_ from here!" She winked at Sakura. "It must be hard surrounded by all these good-looking men, dearie."

Sakura blushed furiously. Naruto grinned.

"I don't know what you're talking about, ma'am, but I'm the only good-looking guy here," he said with confidence, pointing to himself and closing his eyes so the woman would not notice that they did not focus on anything.

She laughed. "Cockiness like that is a great charm when used right."

The area felt like a town from a Wild West movie, with less sand and more grass. The buildings were spread far apart, each made of long strips of cedar and mahogany and leaning precariously to the left for one reason or another, frosted with layers of snow. Grass and moss crept along the street like a mobile plague, slithering up the sides of houses, onto the railings of the porches, splotching the faces of the sidewalks with bizarre contortions of green and white from the snow.

One building towered above the rest in its red-bricked glory. A sign dangled from its roof; _Hotaru Hoteru_, it should have said, but the _aru_ was fading away, as was the _t_ and _ru_ in _Hoteru,_ so that from a distance, it spelled, _Hot Ho e _(Sakura was thankful Naruto could not see the sign).

"Kenichi!" the old woman screamed when she slipped her head beneath the curtains of the door. "Ken, you slacker! I've got guests!"

She turned back and smiled sweetly at Kakashi; she still had all of her teeth in a straight, white row.

"He's at the front desk. Go right ahead, and if he doesn't treat your right, come straight back to me and I'll set him straight."

Kakashi bowed his head in thanks as the woman turned to leave. The second she was out of sight, he heaved a sigh of relief and collapsed against the side of the building in feigned distress.

"Old women scare me," he said.

Naruto laughed loudly, reaching out to pat Kakashi's shoulder. He patted Sakura's instead as he said, "It's the gray hair."

"What did you say?"

"S-Sakura? No – wait – I didn't –"

_ BAM!_


	8. Preconscious

**Author's Note:**

So . . .

I've probably lost a lot of readers. And I sure have hell lost a lot of reviewers. No excuses, guys. School ended a few weeks ago, and I've been a lazy son of a batch of cookies. Send me flames. I'll be happy to get them.

Guilt finally overcame me at the reviewers who had made me _so damn happy_ at the time, mixed in with a newly found love of writing, because damn it, after that hell of a school year, I finally remember why I love to write so much.

So, to whoever is still reading, here's a well-thought-out chapter 8.

I hope.

**Chapter Eight**  
…**:::Preconscious:::…**

Naruto entered his room with a painful lump on his head.

Kakashi had rented two rooms for four hours; he would be sharing a room with Jun and Sai, and in a rare act, he had put Sakura with Sasuke and Naruto. Sakura had requested it.

"It saves us money," she said seriously. "Now that we have Jun-san, we'll need all the money we have before we reach his village. Besides, we'll only be staying for a few hours, so it's not like I need the privacy for sleeping."

It was what she called 'taking one for the team.'

They took their long-awaited showers. In an act of chivalry, Naruto had let Sakura be the first to take a shower (to which, of course, Sasuke stayed silent). The pink-haired girl took the opportunity gratefully and said she would try to finish quickly. Sasuke snorted.

Perhaps the best part of the day was the shower. Hot water fell in peppering streams, the drops like soldiers dropping from planes to parachute to Sakura's skin and battle the dirt that marred the rosy flesh. She sighed in ecstasy. When had she last taken a shower? Two, three days ago? She watched the water beneath her feet turn an ugly brown as she lathered her body with soap. It had been _too_ long.

Outside, Naruto stood still, listening to Sasuke pull things from his bag. He turned in the direction of the noise.

"You should go in next. You've got to wash the blood off of your leg before it gets infected."

He heard silence for a long time to the point where he thought Sasuke had fallen asleep. Feet suddenly padded softly against the floor, and he felt Sasuke's presence looming over him. A finger jabbed him roughly in his good shoulder.

"At least my shoulder is partially healed. You're too stubborn to heal that leg of yours."

Footsteps moved away from him.

"Seriously, Sasuke. All it takes is a few minutes, and Sakura will have it healed completely."

Silence again.

Naruto felt around him for anything to throw at Sasuke. His fingers grabbed the soft fabric of the pillow to his right and he hurled it where he thought Sasuke was. It missed the Uchiha by several feet.

"Why are you here on this mission, then?" the blond asked evenly. "If you're pushing everyone away, why'd you agree to come?"

He didn't get an answer. Because Sasuke didn't have one himself.

Sakura came out at that moment. She had dressed herself in clean clothes in the bathroom, coming out with her hair wrapped in a towel, steam billowing behind her.

"I'm done if you want to go in, Naruto."

Sasuke raised his head and eyed her as she walked to her bag, completely ignoring him. He saw Naruto twist his mouth a little before standing up.

"I'm going in, then, if you don't mind."

When Naruto closed the bathroom door behind him, Sai suddenly entered the room without knocking. He leaned against the frame of the door, clothes changed, hair sopping wet and plastered over his face with a lack of headband. Sakura turned around to greet him with a smile.

"You're pretty happy," Sai said monotonously.

"I'm in a good mood," she told him, emphasizing it with a single twirl of her body. "Everything is going pretty well for once."

Sai pushed himself from the door and moved to stand next to Sakura, arms crossed. "I'll never understand you, Haruno."

"You'll never understand women, Sai. That's why you'll never get a date," she teased, tapping him under the chin and turning away to unravel her hair.

Bored, Sai turned his head to the Uchiha watching him in the corner. He even dared to move a few steps towards him.

"You're mute, are you?" he asked to humor himself. "That was rather pointless of Hatake-san. It's not like you said much in the first place."

Sasuke turned his head away from Sai and returned his gaze back to his backpack in search of bandages. Sai turned away as well, moving to leave the room, but not before he turned back to Sakura.

"Pay a visit to our room," he told her, making sure she saw his lips. "Jun-san is rather amusing after some rest. Hatake-san will not stop laughing. I was surprised at first, having never seen him without his mask –"

"You saw him without his mask?" Sakura quickly interrupted, her hands suddenly shooting out to grab Sai painfully on the shoulders. Sai wasn't sure whether to look surprised at the sudden deranged expression on her face or amused at her interest.

"Well, yes. He was about to prepare for his shower, so he has his shirt off now, but –"

Sakura suddenly raced from the room.

She couldn't hear her feet slapping against the floorboards, but she could feel her heart begin to race in excitement. A smile slid onto her face as she moved through the open door at the end of the hallway.

"Aha!" she screamed. "I finally . . ."

She lowered her accusing hand down lamely and the smile on her face turned into a disappointed grimace. Kakashi turned around in mild surprise, smiling.

And completely dressed.

"Ah, Sakura," he said, one hand rubbing his hair with a towel. "What brings you here?"

Sakura threw her hands up. "How fast do you shower?" she demanded angrily, turning around to run smack against naked flesh.

She took a step backwards in surprise, and when she noticed who she had run into, she quickly averted her eyes to the ground and began to blush in embarrassment. Jun stood before her. A white towel hanging precariously on his waist was the only thing covering him up. If Sakura did the math correctly, that meant that his water-glistening chest, his long legs, and his toned arms were exposed. And since Sakura was rather intelligent, her math was correct.

Jun looked different. He had shaven the tangled goatee he had sported, taking years off of his face to leave him with a handsome, boyish look that was only intensified with the glimmer of his hazel eyes. His hair, now washed, had been cut just below his chin and fell in a cascade of brown highlights.

He gave a startled "oh!" before backing away, looking for anything else around to cover himself up in the presence of Sakura.

"I really am terribly sorry," he said, flustered. "I didn't know you would come to visit and –"

She was not looking at his mouth to hear his apology, and so her own expression of regret was spoken over his.

"I'm so sorry, Jun-san. I came in thinking –"

"This is really embarrassing –"

"And then I realized –"

"Well, now!"

Kakashi, ever the master at well-timed interruptions, put his hands on Sakura's shoulders and began to steer her out of the room. "I think it's almost time for dinner, so why don't we all get dressed and meet in the lobby in half an hour. Shall we?" He didn't stop walking until Sakura was completely out of the room, his inner Kakashi laughing hysterically. They had walked past Sai, who had leaned into the doorway. The silent boy eyed Jun suspiciously.

Naruto was just coming out of the shower when Sakura entered her room. He, too, had nothing but a towel around his waist. Sakura gave a loud groan and covered her eyes, backing out of the room.

"Why couldn't the Feudal Lord be a _woman?_" she cried. "Why is he a stereotypical _guy?_ So much testosterone!"

She did not hear Naruto shouting apologies behind her as he scrambled back into the bathroom with his clothes in hand. When she thought the coast was clear, she entered confidently back into the room. Sasuke had too much pride to undress in front of her, she thought, and ever since he had arrived, he had been secretive about his own body.

She had, however, overlooked the fact that somewhere in Sasuke, his sarcastic personality still lived.

The second she entered, Sasuke began to take off his shirt, staring at Sakura the entire time. Their eyes met, and Sakura's narrowed in anger.

"You're doing that on purpose," she told him. She did not take her eyes off of him, challenging him and foiling his plans to annoy her. He raised an eyebrow, still taking off his shirt. Sakura turned the challenging blood in her veins into spite, and she stormed over to the Uchiha to wrench his shirt back over his head; her eyes did not see the river of scars that riddled his chest. "It's unappreciated," she said to him, turning around.

Sasuke's eyes were equally flaming as he stood up, shirt in hand, and limped over to the bathroom where Naruto had just emerged. He had meant the original action as a joke, something that his usual sarcastic attitude told him to do. But his new attitude had a sudden urge to punch Sakura in the face for turning an innocent joke into an act of spite.

"Naruto, let me dress that shoulder wound of yours," he heard Sakura tell the blond before he shut the door.

Naruto frowned. "What did he do now?"

"What are you talking about?"

She led him to a futon to sit him down, removing his long-sleeved shirt so that he sat in a white undershirt. The wound on his shoulder had lessened in its grotesqueness, the flesh around it swollen and bruised blue and yellow, with the actual wound scabbed over thickly.

"You always turn the subject directly to me whenever Sasuke's giving you a hard time."

He was blind, not stupid. He had picked up on the unconscious pattern Sakura had taken to.

"I still don't know what you're talking about." Sakura tried to avoid the oncoming conversation, but she knew Naruto was not oblivious to her actions. She clamped one hand on Naruto's good shoulder and the other hovered in a fog of green over his wound. Naruto tried not to think about any pain but the one in his shoulder.

Sasuke came out of the shower quickly; Sakura was still healing Naruto's shoulder wound when he limped over to his bag and deposited a roll of bandages. His loose-fitting pants concealed a tightly-wrapped thigh that stung when he walked.

Sakura patted Naruto's healed shoulder when she had finished and stood up, brushing her bare knees. "Kakashi-sensei said it was almost time for dinner, so put your sweater back on and meet me in the lobby, okay?" And with that, she left.

Naruto felt the floor for his sweater, crawling around on his hands and knees until it literally hit him in the face. He reached up to take it off with a grin.

"Thanks, Sasuke."

The air was comforting, something Naruto had not felt for a while. A distant bird called out in the silence that ensued; it was a melodious tune, one that piqued Naruto's interest. He stood up with a sort of twisted smile on his face, listening to the melody as he zipped up his sweater. A scratchy clatter suddenly broke through the song, followed by a dull _thud_, and the bird's voice was silenced. Sasuke had closed the window.

Naruto frowned. "That leg is putting you in a grouchier mood than usual," he said as he walked to where he thought the window was. "Is it healing well?" He felt a hand place itself on his back, pushing him plainly from the room. "You're hungry, aren't you?"

Silence.

"Or you probably just want me to shut up."

_And we have a winner, ladies and gentlemen!_ Sasuke thought with a wry smile, his hand still pressed against the small of Naruto's back as he led him down the stairs and into the lobby.

They had their meal at a diner on the corner of a road. It went by with a mix of stories, some coming from Jun, others from Naruto, and an anecdote from Kakashi and Sakura every now and then. Kakashi sent his teammates on their way to collect whatever they needed; he would be staying with Jun so that the Feudal Lord would help him map out their path to his village.

Sasuke stayed inside of his hotel room. There was nothing he needed except to stock up on personal medical supplies, but he could make do with the ones he had by the time they reached the next village. His leg was giving him too much pain for him to wander about the town without looking silly. Naruto stuck oddly with Sai. Sai had said that he was going to look around town for a few random art supplies; he liked to collect supplies from different towns. In an act of enthusiasm, Naruto had linked arms with Sai and exclaimed that they should walk around town together.

Sai was amused and did not deny.

Although in the mood to sightsee, Sakura had other priorities. She was running low on medical supplies and would need to head immediately to the nearest medical store to stock up. Their time in the town was limited. Her decision to prioritize became one of the best decisions of that day.

Walking out of the store where she had bought the bandages, medicine, and assortment of medical supplies she now carried in a bag, she noticed two women standing off to the side. They were garbed in winter cloaks and villager clothing, but Sakura knew their positions were different the second she made eye contact with them.

They were the enemy.

They tried to seem as if they were simply villagers, leaning against the fence to a nearby farm and discussing what Sakura vaguely made out as tactics on how to raise cows. Sakura caught the glint of a kunai concealed beneath the cloak of one of the women. Her pace increased by the slightest bit and she continued in the other direction, off to tell Kakashi that they had visitors.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she shouted when she burst the door open to his room.

Both men were luckily dressed that time, and they turned up from their positions bent over a desk in the corner to look at her.

"They know we're here. I saw them while I was walking and –"

"Let's move out."

"Where are Naruto and Sai?" She squinted to see his mask better.

"Still about the town."

"We've got to get them!"

"_You've_ got to get them. Gather your things and head out. I'll get Sasuke."

There was no confusion. The orders that passed back and forth between Kakashi and Sakura were crisp and professional, and both went about their ways without any questions. Sakura had only to pick up the bag she had packed in the corner before she was off to find Sai and Naruto. Kakashi headed into Sasuke's room and ordered him to get up – they were heading out, and they would be taking Naruto and Sai's things as well.

In a hurry, they left.

The enemy ninja that had been in the town had either not suspected their departure at all, or had another plan in mind that did not involve trailing Kakashi's team as they took to the dirt road between the towering trees of the forest. Their conversation was silenced as they walked with tensed shoulders and weapons ready to be drawn at any moment, Jun walking in the center of their pentagon formation around him.

Naruto suddenly rubbed at his eyes. They were deep into the forest by that time, heading for the next town.

"Someone's coming," he said, turning his blank gaze upon the direction of his sensei. "From what I can sense, it's just one person, but I could be wrong."

Kakashi did not think he could be wrong, because he could only sense one person as well.

"Their plans are not the typical enemy plans that we're used to seeing. They're up to something if they're only sending one ninja," he said.

That one ninja was quick to arrive and did not even bother to hide himself; he had known he had been detected the second he found himself face-to-face with red eyes and spinning tomoes. Sasuke had taken it upon himself to get rid of the intrusion.

And although Kakashi felt somewhat guilty for it, he waited for Sasuke to fail.

He had seen it. He had seen the dangerous wobble Sasuke's leg had given when he jumped from the ground to land on the branch the enemy was standing on. For a second, he had thought Sasuke was going to fall, but the Uchiha stubbornly righted himself and had taken out a shuriken to throw with deadly accuracy, but the ninja had disappeared.

_Here comes trouble_, the silver-haired man thought with a twisted frown.

"Sai, Sakura, Naruto, reshape the formation so that it becomes a triangle. Keep your eyes open for any signs of an ambush. Do not move from your spots unless need be – we don't know if there's a trap up ahead, and we need to deal with this one first."

He turned his eyes back to where Sasuke and the enemy ninja were engaged in close combat that Kakashi could clearly see was not what Sasuke had wanted. Sasuke had the lower hand in taijutsu – he could not kick with his injured leg, nor could he kick with his other leg since it would mean putting pressure on his injury. He could only give wobbling jumps and powerful punches that missed every time.

"Sai." Kakashi inwardly sighed about the definite anger that would ensue. "Switch places with Sasuke."

Sasuke heard this and was not pleased. He hadn't liked Sai from the very beginning, when he first laid eyes on the pasty boy with his single facial expression and his incomplete shirt. He was taking over Sasuke's position on the team. On his team.

_My team?_

Hesitating was a mistake. In the slit second he hesitated to think about Sai, he felt the crash of a fist into his jaw that sent him flying back on the branch to hit painfully into the trunk of the tree. He had landed with his injured leg awkwardly beneath him. A surge of pain flared in his body, paralyzing him momentarily. The enemy would have struck him again had Sai not suddenly come jumping in with his short sword in hand.

It only made Sasuke angrier.

His leg, the pain, Sai taking over – it all made Sasuke angry to the point where a red haze filled his vision and the black tomoes of his Sharingan eyes spun wildly out of control. He watched Sai handle the enemy with practiced ease, watched him slice away at him, hold him up by the throat, and ask words Sasuke's haze- and pain-filled mind did not register. Watched him throw the ninja to the ground and declare that they should leave now, while he was unconscious.

Sasuke tried to pick himself up. In his failing attempt, he saw Sakura's eyes on him. Sakura, with her green, green eyes was watching him with a foreign look in her orbs before she turned to Kakashi.

"Sasuke," Kakashi soon called for him. "Come on. Get back in formation."

Sasuke's frustration only grew.

Kakashi _knew_ his leg was injured. The damned man _knew_ that Sasuke would fail in his battle against the enemy, and Sasuke knew he had been waiting for him to fail. His frustration drove his adrenaline, allowing him to stand up with the numbing pain in his leg and make it down with difficulty; he knew from the wetness of his pants that he was bleeding again, but he said nothing.

_No more weaknesses, Sasuke_, he told himself. _You survived Orochimaru. Why are you screwing up now?_

Naruto was somewhat annoyed at the fact that he had no idea what was going on around him, and at the fact that he could not be reliable to attack suddenly, as he had heard Sasuke and Sai had done. He was also somewhat annoyed at the heightened stench of blood he could smell from his left. And as if his annoyances had not already reached their end, he was annoyed at Sasuke for being so damn stubborn.

_That part of him _didn't_ disappear_, he thought dryly.

He wished it would.

He tried not to think about Sasuke (even though the stench of blood was overwhelming, and he vaguely wondered why no one else could smell it), instead letting his mind wander to the next town.

Kakashi had given them the plan: they would stay at the coming town for a night and a day (Naruto expected rest, but he would later find out how wrong he was). They'd then set out again for yet another cabin Yamato had set up for them, and then _finally_ Jun's town.

It was a slower pace than they were used to. They could not take quickly to the trees because Jun was not an experienced ninja. He was a man with a large title from a peaceful little town that did not force him into hiring bodyguards. Naruto, tired from constant pain and the anxiety of blindness, did not mind. They had rescued Jun – what did it matter that they were a few days late bringing him back to his village, or to a meeting with Tsunade?

The walk to the next town was done in tensioned silence. The entire team had been on a lookout for any oncoming ninja, as well as for any traps. But there were none. A single ninja had been sent after them, and that had been the end of it. It was unnerving. By the time they had reached the town, their paranoia had reached new heights.

The sun was setting when they set foot past the smallish gates of the town. Kakashi led his tired team and the Feudal Lord in and found them a hotel without much need of asking. The town itself was vast, with spacious green fields and houses that were no higher than two stories. A festival was being set up in the town's center. Workers in colorful costumes walked by with beams over their shoulders or baskets filled with decorations. Naruto could not see them, but his eyes opened wide at the scent of the food.

"Something amazing is going to happen," he said, his mouth watering. "What's going on?"

"The Winter Festival!"

It was the hotel receptionist who spoke this. He handed Kakashi the keys to the rooms he had just reserved and swept one arm towards the door, where men were setting up a tent of wooden beams.

"You _must_ see the winter festival before you sleep tonight, sirs and madam! Dancing and games and rounds of great fun!"

Sai thought idly in his head _And an excellent way for you to advertise_ as the receptionist exchanged a few more words with Jun and Kakashi before heading off into a room in the back. Sakura's eyes had gained a strange shine in them as she read the words off of the receptionist's lips.

"I wish I could hear the music," she said with a girlish sigh.

Naruto laughed. "I guess hearing the music is fine."

Kakashi smiled.

They were separated into rooms again: Sai with Sasuke and Naruto, Kakashi with Jun, and Sakura in a separate room since they would be staying the night. Kakashi sat on his bed for a while in deep thought before he finally reached his own conclusion. With a hidden smile, he stood up, telling Jun he would be back in a few moments.

They would be going to the festival.

And Kakashi had an idea.

As was usual, Kakashi reached the boys' room first. Sasuke was stretched out on his back in the corner of the room, his injured leg elevated on his backpack and his hands behind his head. Naruto was visible in the bathroom; he was splashing water over his face to wear away the sleep from beneath his eyes. Sai sat on his futon and was sorting the things from his bag. Two boys had their eyes on Kakashi when he was suddenly leaning against the doorframe, one pair of eyes still staring into oblivion.

"Let's go to the festival," he said in such a way that it seemed more like a command than a suggestion.

Naruto turned the water off and was in front of Kakashi in a second.

"Really?" he asked excitedly, staring blankly at his sensei. "You don't have any stupid training sessions or something planned?"

Kakashi looked offended. "My training sessions aren't stupid."

"I would be glad to attend the festival," Sai chirped from where he sat. "An excellent break, I believe." He turned to Sasuke and tauntingly said, "Would you not like to have some fun, Uchiha?"

Sasuke glared.

"Come on, Sasuke! Have some fun tonight!"

"Really, Sasuke." Kakashi looked pointedly at the Uchiha. "You'll regret not coming."

Sasuke shook his head and turned away from the silver-haired man, as if ending the conversation. Kakashi smirked in triumph and motioned for Sai to stand.

"Come on, Naruto. We're going to go to the festival. Sasuke's a little under the weather tonight."

Naruto frowned and stared in Sasuke's direction. "You really should have some fun every once in a while."

Silence.

The blond sighed, somewhat dejected, and turned at the push of the hand at his shoulder. His eyebrows suddenly furrowed, and then one of them raised, and he turned in the direction he was _sure_ Kakashi was standing.

"You sound amused," he said bluntly.

Kakashi raised his own eyebrow in turn. "I didn't say anything at all."

"Okay, then. You _feel_ amused." Naruto smiled at Kakashi's short laughter before continuing, "You have something up your sleeve. What are you thinking?"

Kakashi said nothing, opting to knock pointlessly on Sakura's door and enter instead. Sakura was already dressed in fresh clothing, brushing her hair on top of the futon provided. She looked up at the sight of her leader and her emerald eyes crinkled in a smile.

"Festival," Kakashi spoke from behind his mask. "You. Come. Now."

With the hand gestures (which looked like Kakashi was whipping a horse rather than partying), Sakura's smile only widened and she stood up, dropped her comb, and walked to the group of men without question. She felt the need to get out of the hotel, to stretch her muscles, to just forget about being a ninja for_ one day!_ And Kakashi was about to fulfill that for her.

More than she knew.

Kakashi collected Jun before the five of them headed off at last into the town. The sun was setting, casting an odd shadow across the fields of grass that surrounded the paths to the city. Carpenters were walking along the sides of the buildings with planks of wood slung over their strong shoulders and their gloved hands swinging from side-to-side, singing tunes of merriment in the contagious atmosphere of the carnival. Performers dawdled behind them, funny hats in hand and makeup half-finished on their smiling faces. There was a constant melody playing in the air from the center of town: a mix between a wooden flute and a set of stringed instruments, building up and easing back in slow crescendos. Over it spoke a nasally, clown-like voice cracking dirty jokes, followed by a roar of laughter from a crowd that had gathered to a center stage.

Naruto smiled at the music and the jokes. Sakura smiled at the performers and the crowd.

Kakashi smiled at his evil thoughts.

"Naruto," he spoke casually, easing his book out of his pocket. "What do you think you see?"

Without even raising an eyebrow at the odd question, Naruto's face set into a dreamy gaze and he closed his eyes involuntarily as he spoke. "Colors," he began. "Lots of them. All over the place. And there are a lot of people wearing colorful clothing just smiling and laughing and probably eating, too, because I can smell – is that ramen? – the food. And there's some weird guy, probably a clown, or maybe one of those kabuki types of people, that's saying some pretty nasty stuff. I think there are a few decorations, too. What kind of festival is it?"

"It's a festival to celebrate an ancient spirit of the town. A winter spirit."

"So there's snow everywhere," Naruto's pensive voice carried on. "It must be more beautiful, colors against the white snow."

Kakashi smiled. "It is." He turned to Sakura. The medical ninja turned to him as well, her eyes catching his movement, and she smiled slightly. "Sakura, what do you think you hear?"

Unlike Naruto, Sakura raised an eyebrow at the random question. "Bells," she said. "It's a festival. There's bound to be bells, and there's always music going on. Traditional music." She closed her eyes (Kakashi smirked at this similarity between Sakura and Naruto) and smiled. "Strings and flutes – that music that you always get at festivals, you know? It's hard to describe. But I can feel it." She opened her eyes and stared at Kakashi.

"You can feel it?" he asked.

"Feel it," she repeated, and she smiled. "I can feel it now. There's music in the air. Can't you feel it?"

Kakashi smirked. "No, not really."

They had made it to the center of the village by then. A miniature stage was set up, surrounded by four poles from which dangled ribbons and festoons and white origami animals tied together like garlands. Kabuki actors in kimonos stood stage, their wooden sandals knocking against the floorboards as they prepared for their show. Their masks were dangling from their necks and were turned over to hide the story they were to tell.

Kakashi thought it was time.

He brought his hands behind his back and stealthily made several hand seals before he quickly placed his hands over Naruto's eyes. Repeating the motion, he placed his hands over Sakura's mouth. The two students jumped in surprise at the sudden contact.

Naruto rounded on his sensei, looking at him straight in the eye with confusion. "What was that for?" he asked.

Sakura nudged his chest. "Don't talk to Kakashi-sensei with that tone, Naruto!"

And then, it hit.

Naruto was seeing Kakashi.

And Sakura was hearing Naruto.

Sapphire eyes shifted rapidly from sight after sight, drinking in every color, every detail, every inch of sight with fervor. Naruto noticed Sakura first. Of course he noticed her first – how could he not see her radiance? A lopsided grin appeared on his face as his eyes swept over her hair, over her eyes, and quickly over her body. She was beautiful, he thought.

Kakashi and Sai came into his vision next, but they were the same; Kakashi still stood in his at-ease stature, and Sai's eyes still held that dull, lackluster look. Jun, however, had Naruto's sapphire eyes widening. He was younger than the blond had expected, and a lot handsomer (he had, of course, thought the man had had a ridiculous amount of moles on his face and a gray beard that reached the floor, and so his expectations were not hard to kill).

Sakura turned to him and smiled (Naruto felt his knees grow weak), before she turned to Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she exclaimed breathlessly. "Thank you so much!"

"Well, well, don't get too used to it." Kakashi began walking towards the chairs laid out in front of a stage. "You'll be assigned new disabilities soon."

Naruto grinned. "Live for the moment."

Sitting in a dark little corner as the rest of the team enjoyed the whirl and twirl of the dancers and the fireworks of the festival was Uchiha Sasuke in all of his angst-filled glory. Stretched out on his stomach so as not to upset his injured leg, he glared menacingly at the wall. If walls could feel, this one would have torn itself from its brethren and jumped right off of the hotel. But it didn't feel. And it didn't move. And for that, Sasuke only got angrier.

_Stupid wall._

He got angrier at his leg.

_Stupid leg._

And angrier at his teammates, who were probably frolicking somewhere in the town.

_Stupid Kakashi. Stupid Sakura. Stupid Sai. Stupid Jun._

And angrier at the fact that he _just couldn't sleep._

_ Stupid torture._

He thought his days on this mission would have been so much easier if the ANBU had been less inclined to make him a sleep-deprived freak. But he blinked away those memories. Those nightmares. Alone and in the dark wasn't the best situation to bring them up again. He could do something stupid. Something dangerous. And the last thing he wanted to do in his repentance was do something dangerous or stupid.

It was long before he heard the return of his teammates. He could hear Naruto from a mile away, laughing obnoxiously at something incoherent and belching at what Sasuke knew were bowls of ramen boiling in his stomach. He could hear Sakura laughing _at_ Naruto, Kakashi's almost soundless footsteps, and the tinkling of Jun's necklace. For a fleeting second, Sasuke thought he'd pretend to be asleep, but Naruto already knew, and Kakashi probably did, too. So he simply rolled over to stare through the darkness at what he assumed was the ceiling.

"Oh man, Sasuke," was the first thing Naruto said. "You should've _seen_ that festival! It was _amazing!_ And the dancers – oh boy!"

Sasuke didn't fully register what Naruto was saying, or else he would have raised an eyebrow at the fact that Naruto was describing sights instead of sounds and smells.

"Gosh it's dark in here. You're not even asleep. Why are the lights off?"

_The lights? Since when could he see lights?_

Sasuke flinched at the sudden presence of light and he instinctively jerked his head to the side. He heard Naruto's footsteps approach his head.

"You look horrible."

Naruto took in Sasuke's image with a grimace on his face. The Uchiha looked worse than horrible. He was too thin to be properly alive, his charcoal hair was a mess of choppy, uneven strands, and his complexion was paler than usual. Two obsidian orbs turned to meet his sapphire ones.

_"You can see?"_

Sasuke's image was forgotten in an instant. Naruto grinned, his seeing eyes crinkling. "Yup. Kakashi's gift for the night so I could see the festival. Sakura can hear, too. You should've come."

Sasuke snorted. No noise came out, but the notion was still there. _"Why? So I can _talk_ to the festival?"_

"I didn't catch that, but I'm pretty sure that was sarcasm."

Sasuke didn't even bother snorting. He turned so that Naruto could see him clearly. _"Let me sleep."_

"You don't sleep."

_"I do now."_

"You _can't_ sleep."

_"Yes, I can."_

"I know you can't."

_"You don't know anything."_

"I know you can't sleep because of the torture."

Sasuke silenced, his eyes narrowing and his lips pursing. He turned to his side, away from the blond, ending the conversation short. Kakashi was approaching, and if there was one thing he didn't want to speak to Kakashi about, it was _those days_. Naruto said no more.

"Well," the silver-haired sensei spoke, cutting strategically through the to-be awkward silence. "It's getting late, and big is an understatement when I say there's a big day ahead of you tomorrow."

"We're getting new disabilities, aren't we?"

Sasuke grimaced in disgust at Naruto's words. _Was that excitement in his voice?_

"Yes. Tonight."

"Tonight?"

"Yes, tonight. As in, now."

It was swift. Naruto barely had time to register the hands moving towards his mouth, the whispered incantation, the constriction of his throat. He coughed once, twice when his lips could no longer feel the cold leather of Kakashi's gloves, and he moved to voice his protest at the abuse.

But no words came out.

_"Damn it!"_ he mouthed, stomping one foot at being caught off guard. _"Kakashi-sensei, this is unfair! You couldn't have given me one more day?"_

"What's that, Naruto?" Kakashi mocked, holding one hand to his ear. "I can't hear you."

The blond stuck his tongue out childishly. He stood still suddenly, watching as the eldest teammate crouched next to the Uchiha in the corner of the room, hands hovering over ears covered by choppy strands of obsidian.

"Ready, Sasuke?"

No answer.

Kakashi hadn't expected more.

A whisper, a rush of wind from the quickness of Kakashi's skilled hands, and Sasuke was suddenly immersed in silence. Sweet, sweet silence. He thought he felt a small smile slither its way to his lips; maybe this disability wouldn't be so bad.

_"And Sakura?"_ Naruto mouthed when Kakashi looked in his direction.

"She'll be blind as soon as she's done getting changed. Get some rest, Naruto." And although he knew the Uchiha couldn't hear him, he said, "You, too, Sasuke."

But they couldn't rest. They were Konoha ninja, and they would be damned if they had to spend tomorrow struggling through their training as they figured out how to deal with their disabilities instead of taking the time at night to come up with plans of their own.

Sakura's heart beat wildly in her chest. She fisted the comforter beneath her, hands shaking wildly. There were noises in her room. Strange noises, but no chakra traces. The wind? An animal? Naruto? The darkness that pressed against her eyes – oh, God, the darkness, ohGodohGodohGod what was that? How had Naruto survived through the darkness?

Her mind quickly wandered to the contact Naruto had had with Sasuke. Writing on the hand, mouthing words – but those did not help her make head or tail of the noises around her. She began making a mental list of the way the door creaked, of the way the sheets rustled, branches against windows, footsteps in the hall . . .

It would be a long night.

Sasuke could never sleep. Staying up in the darkness was nothing new to him, and if anything, the silence made it all the more golden. There was nothing to think about for tomorrow's training – not like he cared. Sharingan, that was it. He could use it to read the lips of even the quickest of speakers (that would be useful for speaking with Naruto), to read their movements, to see the slightest rustle of the trees. Being deaf, to him, was no difference from being able to hear.

He turned over, wincing when his leg disagreed with the movement. The only thing he would have to worry about tomorrow was his leg, and proving to Kakashi that he didn't need help.

Naruto was smiling as he lay staring at the ceiling. Being mute – _pshhhh_, he thought – was not a problem. Sure, he couldn't scream at Sasuke when he did something stupid, couldn't annoy Kakashi, couldn't make Sakura laugh, but at least now he could _hear _Sasuke groaning in pain, or Kakashi's stealthy taunts, or Sakura's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful laughter. And that was all he needed.

Training tomorrow wouldn't be difficult, he thought. His physical abilities would not be hindered with his disability; it was only a matter of communication, and he had that down: mouthing words, finger-writing, actual writing, the works. His smile widened again and he closed his eyes so he could force scenarios of tomorrow's training sessions.

Sai?

Sai slept.

Like a baby.

And if someone looked closely at him, he might have seen the ghost of a smirk, because Sai was secretly laughing at the misery of his teammates.

"Pick it up!"

_"I'm trying!"_

"Too slow!"

"Shut up!"

"You punch like a girl, Sakura."

Kakashi quickly dodged the oncoming fist of his pink-haired student, smirking in ridicule at her failed attempt to nail him across the face with a deadly right hook that would have had him seeing stars for an eternity. In a puff of smoke, he disappeared, leaves dancing beneath where his feet had once touched the ground.

Sakura opened her sightless eyes, her heart pounding viciously in her chest. Her plan with Naruto had failed, leaving the blond stuck somewhere in a tree and her vulnerable on the ground. She hadn't seen the Uchiha since the training session had begun, and Sai was just off to the side, only stepping in to help from time to time.

Training session: fail.

A burst of energy materialized to her left and Sakura recognized it as Naruto's. She turned in his direction and stretched out her palm. Naruto grimaced and quickly wrote:I S-A-I-D L-E-F-T.

Sakura's lips mimicked his grimace. She huffed in frustration. "I can't understand a word you're writing!" she said heatedly. "That's why the plan didn't work!"

L-E-F-T, Naruto tried again, accenting the word with a sharp exclamation point. Sakura pulled her hand away, completely agitated by that point.

The blond knew. He really did. He knew the frustrations of being blind, the anger that was surely boiling in the pit of Sakura's stomach, the feeling of helplessness and of insolence. In an attempt to console her, he put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her a little closer, but not into an embrace. One of her slender hands felt for his chest. He prayed she could not feel the quickened beat of his heart as her fingers slid up his chest, to his neck, and then cupped his cheek.

She smiled.

"Thanks," she said, as if understanding completely what he had been trying to do. She felt him smile, too. "But Kakashi's going to use this little moment of sentimentality to his advantage. We're vulnerable." A pause, and then she continued tentatively, "Lead the way?"

Her hand slid from his cheek and fumbled for one of his hands. She gripped it tightly.

Naruto didn't mind dying then and there.

He gripped her hand just as tightly, and ran.

Kakashi was not watching them from the trees. He was watching Sasuke. The Uchiha was crouched awkwardly on a branch just above where Sakura and Naruto had been standing. His hardened eyes, turned red with the Sharingan, had been watching the conversation below him, his eyebrows furrowing deeper and deeper as it moved on.

_Is that anger?_ Kakashi raised one eyebrow in surprise. _Is he angry that they're communicating?_

As if he could hear Kakashi speak in his head, Sasuke's face suddenly jerked to where the silver-haired sensei had been hiding. His Sharingan spun wildly, and in an instant, he was gone.

Kakashi pursed his lips, bracing for the reappearance of the Uchiha. He didn't like how easy being deaf was for him. He wanted Sasuke to struggle. He wanted Sasuke to understand that he was a lucky human being – a luck _ninja_ – for having all of his senses _and_ the advantage of the Sharingan.

A leg appeared in his vision and it took the activation of his own Sharingan to see it coming and to dodge it.

Sasuke shouldn't be this strong with a disability, Kakashi thought with bitterness. He would wait in silence for the next week, when Sasuke would be blind and would finally understand what a disability was.

The training session had begun at the crack of dawn. Kakashi had taken his students out to the outskirts of the town where trees nudged the sky with their sugar-coated branches. The ground was covered in feet of powdered snow, both advantageous and disadvantageous for stealth and movement, but beautiful in a way that took the breath away of onlookers who saw light reflected on the crystalline icicles hanging from branches. It was two hours later, and still the students came on strong. There was no objective to the training session, no bells to capture: just find Kakashi, attempt to engage him in battle before he disappeared, and attempt to win.

There had been several attempts, but no win.

Now, Kakashi flew several feet backwards from a particularly powerful kick to his abdomen from a very potent Sakura. His eyes had grown wide at this feat before his body replaced itself with a log. Sakura heard the _plunk_ of the log, recognizing it as the noise of an inanimate object rather than as the dull _thud_ of a body.

At least she had made contact.

Naruto had gotten his share of hits on his sensei, each of them turning out to be futile when he would see a doll, a puddle of water, or a log in the place of what had once been the smirking man. Sai even involved himself for the hell of it from time to time, his ninjutsu leaving stains of black ink in the virgin snow.

Kakashi reappeared from his escape from Sakura's leg somewhere in the trees above, looking down at a clearing of snow. He looked down nonchalantly, looked up, and forced himself to look down again. There was something there. Something that wasn't supposed to be there. Something staining the virgin snow – and it wasn't black ink.

It was blood.

The trail was wide and bright red, thinning as it moved along the snow before stopping abruptly. Kakashi's mind instantly rewound the day's events, going back to every bit of bodily contact he had made with his students. None of it had been enough to break skin.

_But . . ._

He had twisted Sasuke's leg when the Uchiha had aimed at his head with a kick.

He wasn't stupid. He did not miss the subtle wince of pain the boy had made each time they were one-on-one somewhere, did not miss the slight limp in his step, his hesitation to jump from branch to branch instead of teleport. He even kicked with the same leg, afraid to apply any pressure to his injury.

And quite frankly, Kakashi was sick and tired of this game.

He was tired of Sasuke's constant laughter in the face of death and his refusal to be helped. The mission was about to get dangerous. Kakashi used to be able to afford fooling around with Sasuke and wait for him to make the right decisions, but he could not wait any longer. Sasuke needed to be on top of his game if they were going to have any chance of getting the Feudal Lord back to his town without a scratch.

"Sasuke!" he called out, his voice piercing the silence of the forest. He had no worries of enemy ninja. Sai, when he was not engaged in the training session, scouted the area from the sky with Jun as company. Kakashi merely hoped the Uchiha would hear the edge in his voice. "Sasuke!"

He appeared. Silent. Red eyes narrowed, arms crossed, waiting. Kakashi's eyes met his in a fleeting glance before averting his eyes to the boy's left leg.

"You're bleeding," he said flatly. "Don't even try to lie to me."

"I'm fine," the Uchiha bit back.

"Sasuke, you have to let Sakura heal you."

"I don't need anyone to heal me." Bit. Short. Angry.

Kakashi pursed his lips, his eyebrows furrowing as his anger began to seep out. "Sasuke, you have to understand the importance of this mission. It's only going to get worse from here on out."

"I'm _fine_, Kakashi."

"Define 'fine', Sasuke! Because your definition is obviously not the same as mine."

Sasuke grit his teeth. "I can carry on with this mission. My leg isn't preventing me from doing anything. I don't need _anyone _to heal me. I'm _fine."_

"It's an order, Sasuke."

"You're not my sensei anymore, Kakashi."

That was it. He was done with it. He stepped forward. In retaliation, the Uchiha stepped back, but ended up taking an embarrassing tumble so that he ended up doing a backwards somersault until his back hit the trunk of the tree whose branch they stood on.

"I have had enough of your bullshit." Kakashi's voice was dangerously calm, dangerous low. "Your petty anger and selfishness is unneeded now, Sasuke. Cool it. You're being completely unreasonable, and in your state, it's unwise. I want you to be cooperative. Let. Sakura. Heal. You." The last words were ground out ominously, Kakashi's face so close to Sasuke's that the Uchiha felt his breath through the mask.

Sasuke clawed at his face instead. He pulled on his hair, bending over slightly as his chest heaved. Frustration was an understatement. Sasuke wasn't sure if he wanted to scream, to cry, to hit, to die. He sat there for several moments, his body beginning to shiver, his thigh aching, muscles straining to move.

_You can't tell me what to do,_ he wanted to scream at Kakashi. _Not anymore._

Not anymore. Kakashi wasn't his sensei anymore.


	9. Hazardous

**Author's Note:** [awkward silence]

Uh . . . yeah. I think by this point, apologies can do nothing.

Summer's been a roller coaster ride, filled with work, friends leaving to college, and especially the holy month of Ramadan (happy Ramadan to fellow celebrators!), and I've been uninspired and wondering where this story is going.

And every time someone reviewed, I felt guilty and suddenly inspired, and I'd start writing again . . . but then I'd hit a roadblock, and that would be it.

But I remembered that my loyalties lie in my writing, and so here I am, with another chapter, and an idea of where this story is going, so expect an update that doesn't take two freaking months. For everyone who stayed with me, thank you. For everyone who's still reading, thank you. Last chapter was a bit of a screw up with a lot of mistakes.

Now enjoy.

PS - "Mim": I took your advice for my summary. It's a pity you reviewed anonymously. Thank you!

**Chapter Nine**  
…**:::Hazardous:::…**

**Note: This chapter is more of a coming-to-terms-with-feelings chapter rather than my usual action/slight comedy, so bear with the change. And every action a character takes in this story, regardless of whether or not it is OOC, has a reason. Think carefully about why they did that action before you review and say "OOC!"****  
**

They were there, now. There, under a tree – a freaking _tree_ in the middle of the freaking _winter_ on Kakashi's freaking _jacket_ – healing Sasuke's leg. Kakashi had tried to talk him out of his frustration, tried to unwind those white, white hands from those choppy strands of hair, tried to calm what he knew would be one hell of a storm, and he had managed to do so. Sasuke had agreed to be healed by Sakura, and Sakura had agreed to heal him.

The team, however, no longer had the luxury of a motel room. To ease Sasuke's discomfort, Kakashi had laid out his cloak on what appeared to be the ground with the least amount of snow on it before Sasuke laid stomach-down. It was not the discomfort of the ground that Sasuke was worried about – it was the exposure of the wound. And he would be damned if he had to take off his pants in front of the entire team.

Sakura, her eyes closed with practice, slid her fingers along Sasuke's leg until she reached an obvious elevation in his pants from the bandages that hid beneath. She sighed.

_Healing is a lot harder than I thought,_ she thought, grimacing at the processes to come and hoping no one would ever get injured in the next week.

Wishful thinking.

She knew Sasuke would not cooperate in the removal of his pants, and she was too tired from the panic of being blind to allow herself to get into an argument that could be avoided –

_- and you pity him –_

And so she sighed, drawing chakra to her right hand. Her left hand groped for Sasuke's shoulder so that she would draw his attention to her face. She felt him shift beneath her and hoped he was looking at her as she spoke.

"I'm going to tear your pants where the wound is." She left out any questions, not caring whether or not he agreed, because it was either this or removing his pants completely. "This way, you don't have to move any more or else you'll agitate the wound. I'll put a bandage around the spot when I'm done so the tear is covered."

Sasuke didn't say anything. He simply turned around again, laid his head back down on the cloak, and frowned a little. Was Sakura trying to ease his own discomfort?

He felt a sudden breeze on his thigh and knew Sakura had made a clean tear through the thick fabric of his pants, felt the recoil of her hand as her fingers touched blood.

"How bad is it, Kakashi?" Sakura breathed out. She had almost forgotten Sai, Jun, Naruto, and Kakashi watched on. "Can you guide my hands over it?"

Kakashi grasped her wrist and moved it a great distance to the left, grimacing as he saw the wound that plagued the Uchiha. "There's some bruising around the circumference of it," he said. "It's opened up again, and it looks like it's pretty deep." He took one of Sakura's fingers gently and guided it around the circumference of the injury. "That's how big it is."

She began pumping chakra almost immediately, under Kakashi's careful advisory telling her when she was done with one part, when she had skipped one section, when the bruising had disappeared, and when the tissues and muscles had finished sewing themselves together. Sasuke had half a mind to be downright uncooperative, but he was _too tired._ Too frustrated. He let the frustrations boil in the pit of his stomach and did not see it fit to release them.

The entire team headed out not seconds after Sakura had wrapped a bandage around Sasuke's leg and the Uchiha had jumped up from Kakashi's cloak. Their next destination was one of Yamato's preset camps and, with the slow pace they were going at because of Jun, it would take them the rest of the night to reach.

Naruto, no longer blind, could still _feel_ the frustration radiating off of the Uchiha. He could see it in the way he walked: the tensed stature, shoulders rigid and raised by the slightest degree, hands clenching and unclenching. He moved close to where the Uchiha walked a little away from the rest of the team and began walking backwards, catching the boy's attention.

_"Hey,"_ he attempted to console in his silence. _"You're frustrated again."_

_Really?_ Sasuke glared at him, not in the mood.

_"Don't look at me that way, I'm just trying to help."_

"I don't need your help," the Uchiha whispered harshly.

Naruto frowned – _finally, finally, a frown on that sunburned face of his._ _"Come on, Sasuke,"_ he attempted again. "If you hold in your frustrations, you're going to have another episode like that time at the motel with the mirror –"

But Sasuke brushed right by him so he wouldn't have to see his lips move anymore.

The entire journey was silent. Jun was not enchanting Sakura with tales about his village, Sai was not speaking to Kakashi about coming missions, nor was Kakashi instructing anyone about anything. Complete and total, uneasy silence.

And Sasuke felt guilty.

Naruto had just been trying to _help_ him and he had treated him like the dirty snow that crunched beneath his boots.

_Damn it . . ._ He grit his teeth. _I managed to push away the _only_ person that actually _wants _to talk to me. What the hell is wrong with you, Uchiha?_

And so his frustrations grew.

They reached the cabin that stood shrouded and concealed between curtains upon curtains of trees and shrubbery. Night had fallen. The team was preparing for sleep. Kakashi gave instructions as to who would be out on duty and when, who would room with who, and the approximate amount of time they would have to sleep.

Sai was on duty first, leaving Naruto and Sasuke alone in a room of their own. Sasuke had collapsed immediately to his futon, his body tired, but his mind unwilling to sleep. He closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to lull his mind to sleep with his body, but to no avail. Even the silence was beginning to unnerve him as he simply lay there. At least when he was not deaf, he could pass the time listening to the odd sounds from outside, or counting Naruto's snores per minute.

He did not hear said blond crawl on his hands and knees towards him, nor did he hear the whispered call of his name. It was only when he felt the blond's breath on his neck did he turn around so quickly, his forehead knocked against Naruto's nose, sending the boy back with what would have been a howl of pain had his vocal chords not been silenced.

_"Damn it, Sasuke!"_ he read off the blond's lips, even in the dark. His Sharingan eyes glowed ominously with the light from the window.

Sasuke simply turned away from him, getting ready to turn off his eyes and close them again. He was prevented from doing so by a shag of blond hair in his sudden vision, which turned into a set of blue, blue eyes that stared unblinkingly at him. His eyebrows furrowed in sudden frustration at the invasion of his personal space

Naruto caught the movement.

_"Please."_

Sharingan eyes danced wildly.

_"Stop being so frustrated. Okay? You're here now. We're on a mission as a team now. Calm down."_

There was a moment of silence. Sasuke tried searching Naruto's eyes for some sort of deeper meaning, some covetous ulterior motive, but what was he thinking? It was Naruto. Kind, unselfish, altruistic Naruto. His chest constricted with a sudden winded feeling, confusing him.

"You forgive me already?" he whispered in disbelief.

Naruto smiled – he _smiled_, a brilliant show of dazzling white teeth in complete sincerity that stunned Sasuke's eyes – and said, _"I'm too used to your anger to let a little push like that get to me."_

That did it. Sasuke felt completely winded, his breath hitching. He turned his Sharingan off in an effort to muster all his energy into figuring out _what the hell he was feeling._ It was consuming him, this constricted feeling of _something_ that he did not understand.

He was grateful to have Naruto. Grateful to have someone who was always there for him, everyday, even when the rest of the world was against him. When he pushed everyone away before he left for Orochimaru, Naruto was there pushing back. When the entirety of Konoha was against him after his unintentional return, Naruto was right there with him, every day of his torture.

Every _single_ day. He never missed _one._

And now Sasuke had pushed everyone away again, and Naruto was the one coming back.

Sasuke began to feel sick. Naruto watched the Uchiha draw his knees to his chest, his breathing beginning to become a chore rather than an involuntary action.

_"Sasuke?"_

Sasuke did not deserve to have Naruto. He never did anything for him. His hands were suddenly shaking, his throat constricting, his stomach twisting and churning. He was feeling too sick. Too frustrated. Why the hell was Naruto still talking to him? Why the hell was he feeling the way he was feeling? What was wrong with him?

_"Sasuke?"_

And then he vomited.

Kakashi's eye opened abruptly. The sound had been faint, but he had heard it in the silence nonetheless. He quickly jumped from his bed, stealing a fleeting glance at the still-asleep Feudal Lord, before running from his room and into the room directly next to his. The sight he met was not one he had been expecting in the middle of the night.

Naruto stood over an Uchiha in the fetal position – a sight that Kakashi, sadly, was not new to. The obsidian-haired boy was pulling masochistically at his choppy strands of hair, teeth gritted in what Kakashi knew was frustration, his chest heaving from the lack of oxygen going into his body.

* * *

Haruno Sakura realized long ago what Sasuke had just noticed.

She realized Sasuke had done nothing to help them. Nothing at all, which is why she tried to hate him so much. She tried to get rid of him from her memory, because all she could remember was stupidly falling in love with him for his looks and ending up with nothing but pain in return.

But maybe, just maybe, he had done something for them. For her. And perhaps, just perhaps, he had ended up with something other than pain. Because she could not – and still could not – bring herself to completely hate him.

* * *

Even when Sakura was just about ready to completely hate him, Naruto prevented her.

Morning came, and the team was out and about in the Winter Wonderland again, last night forever ingrained into Naruto's memory. Kakashi had pinned Sasuke down spread-eagle in an attempt to ease the Uchiha's breathing before he began to hyperventilate. Fearing for the Uchiha's health and knowing he would not calm down otherwise, Kakashi had pressed his thumb and forefinger into a pressure point on Sasuke's shoulder that sent the boy into an unconscious state of mind, ending the struggle for the night.

The morning, however, was not better.

Sasuke was in a terrible mood from the night before, his frustrations still boiling madly within his stomach despite his encounter with Naruto. He took the silence as a blessing and as a curse in the way it left him to relish and wrestle his thoughts.

What the _hell_ was he doing here?

Naruto was in melancholy, thinking about Sasuke, thinking about everything he was trying to do to keep the torn pieces of Team 7 stitched together, and thinking about how life was just a sharp scissor cutting right through the stitches. He sent a sideways glance at Sasuke, then another at Sakura, and sighed.

Sakura was jittery. Her thoughts were jumbled with the mission, with Sasuke, with Naruto, with her handicap, and with a strange gut feeling she could not shake off. The skin on her pale arms rose in goosebumps. A sixth sense, that was what she felt. A sixth sense that there was something wrong. Something was going to be very, very wrong.

Kakashi was –

_SCHWIP._

Well, Kakashi was ducking.

He did not have time to contemplate his life or his students because there was a sudden flurry of weapons dotting the trees around them. The enemy had found them. And from what he could sense, there were a lot of them.

"Thirteen of them!" he shouted to his teammates as they formed a pentagon around Jun. Naruto had gently grabbed Sakura's arm and moved her into position. She smiled nervously in response.

"They aren't in the skies," came Sasuke's voice, his Sharingan swirling ominously. His face was tilted towards the canopies above, determination making his jaw line prominent. He turned to face Kakashi for an answer.

The silver-haired man nodded. "Sai," he said sharply. "Take Jun-san and Sakura with you to the skies. Naruto, Sasuke, and I –"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura quickly interrupted. Naruto heard her voice and didn't understand why his lips were itching to smile. "You should protect Jun-san in the sky in case they find a way. I'm going to fight."

Now Naruto understood. He watched her eyes gleam in determination, her voice without hesitation despite the darkness that pressed against her eyes.

"I am a danger near the Feudal Lord," she continued quickly before the enemy could stage another bombardment. "If they manage to get near him in the sky, I will only pose as a hassle. Kakashi-san, please. You told us we need to hone our skills and overcome our disabilities, and how are we to do that if we are always running away from danger?"

She didn't catch the odd glimmer in his eye at a momentary swell of pride in his pink-haired student, nor the pointed glance he shot towards Sasuke and Naruto that quite clearly screamed _Take care of her!_

"All right," he said at last. "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, you take the enemy on the ground. Sai and I will do what we can from the skies."

They split up, narrowly avoiding a second flurry of kunai and shuriken that embedded themselves into countless branches. Sasuke was somewhat confused when Kakashi jumped onto the massive bird Sai had conjured and Sakura had stayed on the ground; he had missed Kakashi's instructions to the kunoichi. Sakura had spoken more bravely than she had felt. Yes, she wanted to challenge herself. Yes, she wanted to overcome her disability. Yes, she wanted to prove she was not weak. But no, she had no plan.

And she could sense the enemy behind her.

A hand grabbed her wrist and she did not need her eyes to know it was Naruto, leading her away from danger. She heard the taunts she had once heard directed at Naruto, way back when.

"This one's blind, too!" came from above. A bout of laughter. "We've got a bunch of handicaps after us! Dear _Lord_ this is hilarious!" And then there was a ring of laughter all around her. She could sense where every laughing ninja was placed, their sparks of chakra and their voices giving their locations away, but they would quickly move to another location and she would have to gather her energy to find their chakra again. And in her situation, she did not have the time.

She heard the chink of metal directly in front of her. Naruto had been engaged in combat, but there were two pairs of hands grabbing onto her arms again, and she was about to lash out when Sasuke's voice came from her left.

"Shadow clones," he said. "You should've gone with Kakashi."

She shook her head in his direction, hoping the pointed glance she was sending his way was obvious. She heard the chirping of a thousand birds moments later and knew Sasuke had been engaged in battle as well, so it would not be long before someone would come after the clones Naruto had made and get to her.

"Seven down," came Sasuke's voice from in front of her now as she ran blindly; he was talking to Naruto. "Six left in a fifty meter radius."

Sakura focused on her own surroundings, hearing the subtle _poof_ of a surrounding shadow clone and sensing – _sensing _for the first time since she'd been blind – the coming of an enemy. She turned around, arms out in front of her to engage in taijutsu, but taijutsu was not what the enemy had in mind.

She heard nothing but silence, and suddenly, there was heat.

The inferno was devastating. She felt her body heat up immensely, the flames licking her skin in attempts to raise blisters on her porcelain complexion, in attempts to turn her bones to ashes, her hair to soot. And she did not know the way out.

Sasuke cursed, watching the scene to his left. Sakura was being useless.

Again.

He knew if he did not interfere quickly to help, Sakura would be burned alive. He gritted his teeth in frustration – how could she be _so stupid_ to go _blindly_ through the mission versus _six enemies_ without proper training? The Uchiha jumped from his branch to the inferno Sakura was in the midst of and quickly disposed of the ninja whose mouth spilled forth the flames. The flames stopped, but Sasuke could still see a figure in the center of the blaze of fire, and he reached an arm into it to pull Sakura out.

Except it was not Sakura.

It was a log.

Sasuke could not hide the surprise in his eyes as he whipped his head around, looking for anywhere Sakura could have possibly gone. She had made a shadow clone? He snorted, having never had guess she would be so clever as to manage to get away with her lack of sight. Sometimes it was hard to remember she had been at the top of the academic class when they were barely even Genin.

The pink-haired girl appeared behind Sasuke, her clothes singed, her pale skin darkened in areas, but otherwise perfectly all right. She felt Sasuke's gaze on her and smirked. A part of her wanted to tease him, to show him that she could be just as skilled as he – and just as sarcastic – but her logical side overrode her thoughts and she classified the situation around her as too dangerous to stop for such a minor moment.

"Baby, baby, baby," came the mocking tune from above her, and she instinctively looked up despite meeting eternal darkness. Sasuke turned away; he had other enemies to worry about.

Sakura focused her chakra on the figure above, but the man was no longer above her. He was directly beside her, his eyes observing her behind his mask, mocking smirk concealed by a scarf.

"Pretty and blind," he spoke. "That's an unfortunate combination."

"Dumb and a ninja," Sakura spoke, aiming a kick to her right. "That's a horrible combination."

Her leg hit nothing.

"You would know."

And suddenly, her leg was being jerked from beneath her before she had the chance to retract it, her body being lifted into the air and whipped around like a wet towel before she was let go to fly _smack_ into the thick trunk of a distant tree. Before her body could recover, she was being lifted again, and again she was sent flying. And again she was lifted. And now she was screaming, because her body could take no more of the aimless flinging, no more of the darkness, no more of the fear that had built inside of her that only heightened at the unknown enemy.

No more of the sudden unbearable pain that coursed through her body. She was being electrocuted, the volts winding their way through each and every nerve of her arms and chest, and she did not know the source. Someone was lifting her by her neck. Her head hung limp. Blood bubbled past her lips from the countless collisions against the trees.

"The Feudal Lord," came the ominous voice of a female. "His location. Now." She placed her hand over Sakura's heart, silently threatening her.

A feeble smirk twitched on Sakura's lips. "Bite me."

She missed the smirk that stood firmly on the enemy's. "No problem."

The fatal burst of electricity did not come, to Sakura's surprise. She heard the unmistakable sound of skin-on-skin, the grunts of an Uchiha, the _thud_ of an unconscious body.

"Damn it, Sakura." Her name, to her, was poison on his lips. There was a bitter tone in its utterance. She managed to stand on her own, her knees wobbling dangerously beneath her weight and her body above her waist numbing from the electrocution. But her hearing was fine. Excellent. Too good. Because it did not prevent her from hearing the next phrase that came vehemently from the deep voice box of the young Uchiha.

"You're so useless."

That did it.

She was just about to warm up to him. Just about to say "Hey, thanks for helping me out." Just about to check if he was injured so she could help out, too, because she had tried to stop merging _teammate_ and _traitor_ to sort out differences. But her mind suddenly put the two terms together again, and Sasuke was suddenly a disgusting pit in her stomach that she wanted to throw up. How _dare_ he –

_SLAP._

The sound did not resonate. It was not loud. It was blunt against Sasuke's paper-thin skin and Sakura's faux-leather glove. There was no theatrical pause, artistic moment of silence, or explosion in the distance to distract them from the situation at hand. There was only cold, hard reality and bottled up feelings that hung in the air like the icicles on the trees around them.

"Hit me again."

There was something in Sasuke's voice that disintegrated a layer of the brick wall Sakura had put up. Something that made her shiver, made a part of her fear for her life, all in a single tone of his voice. Where had he learned to speak like that? She did not twitch, however. She stood firmly in place, determination driving her stronger than adrenaline.

"I dare you," came the ominous voice again.

"You have no right to call me useless," she replied, hoping her voice had mimicked his threat.

He pushed her then. Just a small shove, but she stumbled back slightly nonetheless. At the tips of his fingers were all his frustrations, all the small things that had built up over the months he had been back to Konoha, all the hatred he had harbored, and he hoped they would magically transfer into Sakura's body so she would shut the hell up.

Sakura reached her arms forward to push him back and Sasuke did not get out of the way.

At the tips of _her_ fingers were all her feelings, all the betrayal she had endured from the one person she had loved, all the confusion of love, of what she felt for the boy in front of her, all of her pride, all of her will to protect her one and only homeland, and all of the anger at Sasuke that had been created when he sent her one and only homeland, her only friends, into turmoil.

"You ungrateful jerk!" she hissed at him, knowing that he would never be able to hear the intensity of her words. "Obviously those two weeks of torture were completely pointless if you've ended up being the same heartless bastard you always were!"

"Heartless bastard?" A bitter laugh escaped his lips. "You didn't seem to think I was a heartless bastard when you were _madly_ in love with me!"

One of her hands swung forward in a desperate attempt to let out her anger again, but Sasuke ducked and pushed her right back, taking away any balance she had so that she landed on her rear.

He had had enough with her.

She had had enough with him.

Naruto had had enough with their bickering.

He appeared suddenly, innocent sapphire eyes widened, blond brows raised, bleeding from a slash just above his eyebrow. Sakura and Sasuke turned to him wordlessly in their surprise – Sakura had suddenly felt his familiar presence and had heard the soft _thump thump_ of his shoes hitting the branch.

Blond eyebrows suddenly slanted and furrowed, and innocent sapphire eyes hardened in anger. He grabbed Sasuke by the front of the shirt; the Uchiha did not dare swipe his hands away.

_"You speak what I'm about to say," _he ordered angrily, knowing Sakura would never hear what he had to say unless Sasuke spoke it for him.

He and Sasuke had a staring contest for several seconds, each of them daring the other to turn away. But Sasuke felt he had a favor to repay the blond – eight or nine years of favors to return, and speaking was only a single penny in the fountain of favors. He nodded his head every-so-slightly and fixated his eyes on Naruto's snarling lips.

_"What does it take to fix your relationship?"_ Naruto cried, frustrated and fed-up. Sasuke obediently spoke his words in monotony. _"What does it take for you two to realize that you're going to be together for a long time? We're a team. We were always a team! Do I have to hurt someone for you to realize? Do I have to hurt myself?"_

Sakura stared guiltily at the floor. Sasuke could not meet Naruto's eyes, keeping his own fixated on the blond's furiously moving mouth.

_"I hate this."_ Tears were beginning to come out of Naruto's eyes now, but his expression remained as angry as ever. He wiped futilely at the droplets with the back of his hand. _"I want things to return to the way they were. I want us to be a team again. I want us to laugh together again, to do everything together again. But this . . ."_

He gestured loosely to the shambles of what had once been Team 7.

_"This is not what I wanted."_

_

* * *

_Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke slowly trudged their way through the forest, each of them spaced from each other by several meters. Naruto's only reason for continuing forth with the mission at that point was anger. It propelled his feet, because his mind was too busy wondering what the hell had happened to his team to think properly.

The three of them had received an ink mouse from Sai that had quickly turned into a flurry of words that Sasuke had read aloud. Kakashi, Sai, and Jun were being trailed by the enemy and could not return to the three of them for a few hours; they were forced to remain in a hidden location, but they would be meeting up just before the entrance of Jun's village.

Naruto sighed.

Just great.

He was stuck with Mr. Grumpy Frustrations and Ms. Adamant Denial, one deaf and the other blind, while he himself was mute and refusing to speak to either of them. They were a walking theater troupe from a disaster movie. Things could not get worse – and simply by thinking that, Naruto knew that things _could_ get worse.

Sakura was struggling to focus on the chakra of Naruto just ahead of her, her guilt and frustrations breaking her focus every time she thought about them until it took her several moments to compose herself again and figure out that Naruto was several feet ahead of her. Putting in so much focus was weakening her. She could no longer stay in the trees. Fed up, she descended to the snowy ground below, looking up every once in a while to make sure Naruto was still above her so that she was not lost, and keeping her hands out in front of her to make sure she did not hit into the trunk of a tree.

Sasuke's lips were pursed tightly as he thought. His eyebrows drew together in anger, eyes shooting fleeting glances at the blond brooding ahead of him.

_What the hell is keeping me here?_ he thought over and over again. _What is keeping me in Konoha, when all I have been treated like is a worthless traitor, a pile of dirt they could kick through? When I have never had a single frustration outside of this village, and all my frustrations came crashing down in Konoha?_

The thoughts plagued him every sleepless night. What _was_ keeping him? Outside of Konoha, he was free. No rules, no restrictions, no one keeping an eye over him, and certainly no bonds. He did what he wanted and felt _good_ about it. Not a single possibility for an early gray hair.

Konoha? Konoha was different. Konoha took him in, tossed him around, beat him up, stepped on him, mutilated his mind, and then gave him the opportunity to stay and be one of them.

And he took it.

He could have left at any time. They'd send ANBU after him? Fine. He could take every single of them down with both hands tied behind his back and half his body blown to smithereens. But he did not leave, not even when he was put back into the team he had left and met with situations that made him literally pull his hair out.

_(He smirked, one hand unconsciously fingering the choppy strands of hair that he had no intention of fixing)_

He had come back to the very same people he had wanted to leave. And a part of him did not want to stay. He did not want anyone to love him; Naruto? Naruto had to stop. Kakashi? Kakashi could only understand so much. Sakura? Ha! He did not want anyone to care about him. To feel anything but hate for him.

Because he fears –

He gritted his teeth. Stupid thoughts.

– He fears that, in the end, he'll leave them all.

Again.

. . . So what was keeping him here?

Sakura's own eyebrows were drawn in thought. The awkward tension that had fallen upon them had fallen thicker than the snow she struggled to walk in. Several minutes had gone by before the next time she turned her face to the skies, squinted her eyes, and focused for Naruto's chakra, but it was no longer above her. It was not ahead of her, nor behind her, and her mouth shifted into a puzzled frown.

Suddenly in her hearing, there was a muffled voice that Sakura knew was Naruto, and Sasuke's staccato of his name, loudly, "Naruto!" distantly in front of her. She took off running, hands wildly feeling the air in front of her for any trees as her heart pounded in her chest.

Naruto was in danger.

Her body ached to call out his name as if it would relieve all her worry, but she knew she shouldn't in case the enemy was still around. She could not give away her location in case she was Naruto's last hope. But her body could no longer hold her voice in when she reached where she had heard Sasuke's cry. There were no chakra traces – not even the slightest to indicate something had gone down in that area, and she finally let her lips utter a cry of the blond's name in her desperation.

Chakra sparked to life around her. Just one, but Sakura did not let her guard down. She turned around, hearing the _whoosh_ of an arm sailing through the air before it connected with her cheek. She fell with a yelp before jumping right back up, arms in front of her for defense.

_Please let him keep using taijutsu,_ she pleaded in her mind. _Please let him keep using taijutsu._ The slightest sign of ninjutsu, and she would have to run.

The enemy, luckily, could not read her thoughts. Sakura received a kick to her abdomen and another punch to her face before she was able to reach out and crack the woman's – it was a woman, she realized – head against her knee, sending a punch to her stomach that hurtled her through the wintery forest. Sakura quickly concentrated for any sign of chakra traces around her, but there were none. She wasn't so sure if the lack of any chakra was a benefit or a sign to grow more worried that Sasuke and Naruto were nowhere to be found.

She had to keep going. She had no idea _where_ she was going, but she knew she had to keep walking. If she stayed in one place, the enemy could find her.

_But Sasuke could find me, too._

She forced her snow-drenched legs further, deeper into the forest, mind alert for even the slightest rustle of a bush. Minutes passed by and she grew more anxious by the second. Would they ever find her? Was Naruto all right? What about Sasuke? She was blind and alone in the middle of the forest, and a part of her was becoming somewhat angered at Kakashi's poor battle tactics. Sending them off with disabilities on an _A-ranked mission!_ Perhaps he was growing senile in his old age. She knew he was crazy, but she never thought he was reckless.

The thoughts that swirled in her head only heightened the fear that she thought she had managed to reign in. It burst from her stomach like a caged animal breaking free, creeping up her throat so that at one point she had to utter a weak whimper, feeling disgusted at herself for doing so but unable to quell the fear. The darkness that pressed against her eyes brought her close to tears. She was blind. She was _blind!_ She would never be able to see again until Kakashi removed the damn trick. What would happen if she really _was_ blind? She would live in eternal darkness forever, never being able to see another smile, or the face of a friend, or the beauty of the natural world.

Her thoughts almost brought her to her knees in hopelessness, wiping Naruto and Sasuke from her memory until several minutes later, there was a rustle nearby. Like the pulling of a trigger, she was snapped back to her senses, her head jerking up in alert and her body concentrating on the source of the rustle. There were two chakra traces, one of them moving quickly and the other not moving at all. When the moving one paused, she knew she had been found. She braced herself for combat.

"Sakura!"

That was Sasuke's voice. Sasuke was the moving trace of chakra. Sakura's heart began to pound again. That meant Naruto was the unmoving trace.

The trace moved closer to her. "Help him!" Sasuke screamed at her, eyebrows up in distress. His voice was louder than usual in his deaf state. "Just heal him, damn it! Please, Sakura, please!"

Sakura did not think. She heard Sasuke place what she knew was Naruto's body on the ground, and she nodded her head to wherever Sasuke was stationed with Naruto at his feet. Without hesitation, she said, "Guide me."

Sasuke understood. He took her gloved hands in his own, waiting for her to kneel in the snow so that he could guide her hands to where a wound in Naruto's gut bled profusely. Sakura felt no spark. Perhaps, had it been another time, she might have. She might have stopped for a brief instant to realize just who it was that was gripping her hand so tightly in desperation (Uchiha in desperation? Ha! she might have taunted him). But now she did not. She only cared for Naruto. Sasuke might have well been Itachi and she could not have cared.

As long as Naruto was all right.

Sasuke knelt by the blond's side, his breath sucked in as his eyes wandered over Naruto's battered body. There were minor cuts littering his whiskered face, small bruises and slashes over the rest of his body, but there was a stab wound to his gut made by an ice-encased fist, and Sasuke had gotten there just in time to prevent the ninja who had punched him from stretching his fingers to create further damage to Naruto's body.

Naruto had been ambushed by a group of the enemy who had decided that taking out one of them at a time was the best idea. The group had vanished out of Sasuke's sight not seconds later, leaving the Uchiha to search for them with his Sharingan spinning wildly.

He told Sakura what had happened as she stretched her hands over the gut wound and began to seam the muscles together. She put every remaining ounce of her chakra into healing the blond beneath her hands, ignoring her mind telling her to just lie down then and there and sleep from all the events that had happened that day.

"It's working," Sasuke's voice whispered close to her. She inwardly smiled slightly at the relief in his voice, chiding him secretly, _of course it's working!_

When Sakura had begun to close the wound, she asked Sasuke for bandages. He gladly handed them to her.

And Sakura felt the spark.

She felt the slightest bit of surprise as her bare, blood-covered fingers touched the tips of Sasuke's unexpectedly warm fingers; it was the first anger-lacking physical contact they had had since forever. Since that day, way back when, before Sasuke left. And she knew he was staring right at her.

She quickly drew her fingers away to return to Naruto, but she knew Sasuke could see her shaking fingers. How could she let her emotions come to her at a time like this?

"Sakura . . ."

"Don't say it!"

Sakura quickly turned her head to him, her voice sharp and snapping.

"Don't say anything, Uchiha," she continued, softer. "Please."

He didn't say anything more, his eyes simply averting to the ground before they rested upon Naruto's body, trying to occupy himself with something to do to get rid of the awkward blanket that had descended upon the air in a thick silence.

* * *

Sasuke had taken to carrying the unconscious blond over his shoulder once they had finished with the healing, and he and Sakura took off on foot in a direction Sakura hoped was the right one. Sasuke estimated two miles left until they would reach Jun's village.

The Uchiha did not notice he was currently having the longest conversation he had ever had with Sakura since his return to Konoha. She had voiced her concern for Kakashi, Sai, and Jun, and Sasuke was telling her that they had most likely already made it to the village. Walking backwards (rather comically, Sakura might add, imagining a stoic-looking Uchiha walking backwards with Naruto slung over his shoulder), Sasuke read Sakura's lips as she imagined what Jun's village was like. His lips were twitching.

_"He seems like the kind of person who would come from a village with a lot of green in it, not like those villages jam-packed with buildings. So a lot of –"_

It took him a split second to realize he was no longer looking at Sakura's lips, and another split second to reach forward, Naruto wobbling precariously on his shoulder, to slip his hands beneath her arms to prevent her from crumpling to the floor.

"Sakura?" he whispered, checking her immediately for any signs of injury that could have come from a hidden enemy. He eased her to the ground, placing Naruto beside her because his weight had become overbearing.

Emerald eyes flickered tiredly. Sakura sat up, blinking away her weariness, but her legs would not allow her to stand. She had used too much chakra trying to focus on traces and healing Naruto. Sasuke caught the gist of the situation and sat beside Naruto.

"We'll rest for a few minutes," he said. "At least until Naruto wakes up again."

She nodded, her eyes unwittingly closing. Naruto awoke minutes later, groggy and numb, wincing slightly at the bruises he had sustained.

_"Sasuke,"_ he said pointlessly, turning to the Uchiha who had been watching him. _"What . . .?"_

"Sakura healed you," was all he offered. He averted his eyes to the only female, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "We've got to get going again. It's starting to snow."

_"How much further?"_

"A little under two miles."

He did not ask if Naruto could make it, did not stick around to see if Sakura had gotten up and was alert. He began walking. He had shown too much care for the two of them; showing any more would bring them too close, and that was the last thing he wanted.

_Remember your place, Uchiha._

There were no more enemy encounters. Sasuke was wondering about the intelligence of the enemies, and if they had intelligence at all to back up the brute strength they attacked with. Why did they not simply raid and destroy the Feudal Lord's village if they no longer had him? Had they wanted him for ransom? Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he continued to think. There had to be something Jun knew that he was not telling any of them. He had to have something valuable that the enemy wanted.

Naruto's pointing finger was suddenly in his vision and he followed it to where large gates towered over the snow-covered trees. There was no village name on its front, but rather _Welcome_ painted in red on the golden face of the doors.

"We're there, aren't we?" Sakura spoke aloud, a smile making its way to her lips. Naruto nodded her head for her, taking her by the hand and leading her forward, Sasuke sauntering behind them.

The gates were unusually high to make up for the village's lack of ninja, towering several meters above the three as they made their way to the entrance where they were greeted by a young woman in a traditional kimono. She smiled sweetly, bowing.

"Konoha ninjas," she spoke slowly. Sasuke glared at her when her eyes rested on him longer than they had rested on the other two. "Jun-sama has been waiting for you."

"Is he okay? And Kakashi-sensei and Sai?" asked Sakura.

The young woman smiled again, her eyes nothing but slits. "They are currently enjoying a feast in the main hall of the Feudal Lord's residence. The villagers have just finished rejoicing the return of the Feudal Lord, so please excuse any noise. I am to escort you to the building."

Sasuke was suspicious. How could he be so sure this was not some sort of trap? It was obvious they were Konoha ninja – Sakura and Naruto wore the symbol so proudly on their heads. She could have been one of the enemy. Naruto started forward, but Sasuke put out a hand to stop him.

"How do we know we can trust you?" he said, eyeing her carefully.

At that, Naruto stepped back, suddenly as suspicious as Sasuke.

She smiled again. Sasuke thought her smile was creepy.

"If you would like me to ask one of your teammates to leave the luxury of the feast to come and meet you here, I am willing to do so."

"That would be –"

It was Sakura's turn to stage the interruption. She put her hand on what she assumed was Sasuke's shoulder (missing, however, and hitting the side of his neck), effectively making him turn to her.

"She's telling the truth," she whispered to him, eyes slightly wider than usual. "Really."

"How can you possibly –"

"I just can, okay? Just trust me this time."

Sasuke was still wary. Just because Sakura turned her green, green eyes on him and asked him to trust her did not mean he was going to do so with one hundred percent of his will. He stepped back, nodding his head in approval, but his hand hovered over his weapon pouch.

They were led through a village uncannily similar to the one Sakura had imagined and described to Sasuke. There was green – a lot of it, or what would have been green had it not been layered with snow, with large gardens between every small house and roads paved with white cobblestone. A frozen lake was surrounded by wintery white just behind the gates, extending to a small boathouse in the distance. Naruto thought that if Sakura could see, she would go insane.

A miniature palace-looking building stood erect at the heart of the village, painted red and gold with lanterns dangling from the gutters of its large roof. A staircase made of white marble created a grandiose walkway to the towering front doors, surrounded on either side by rows upon rows of flowers kept alive despite the snow around their roots.

Naruto corrected himself: if Sakura could see _this_, she would go insane.

"Such a nice house for a small-town Feudal Lord," Sasuke commented offhandedly, attempting to keep the malice from his voice.

"Our Feudal Lord loves both outward appearances and inward appearances," was all the woman offered. "He is fond of his village and looks to keep the people happy, and by bringing beauty to their everyday life, he is able to do so."

Sakura wished on that one day she was not blind. She hoped they would stay long enough so that she could no longer be blind in order to set her green, green eyes upon the marvelous sights.

The woman led the way up the staircase and to the door, knocking sharply twice so that a young boy – stunningly handsome, Naruto thought, wondering if _everyone_ in the village was beautiful like the woman and the boy – opened it, thanked the woman, and took the lead.

Sasuke did not remove his hand from his weapon pouch until they reached the open doors of what he could see was a dining room, casting a sideways glance at Sakura and wondering just how the hell she had managed to tell whether or not the woman was lying.

Naruto had expected an overly long table filled with dishes upon dishes of the most exotic food, with candelabras and flowers at the center – something stereotypical for a palace-wandering Feudal Lord. He was somewhat disappointed to see a small table that could accompany only six people, with only one dish places out in front of each person (although filled with delectable food from somewhere Naruto did not know), traditional lanterns hung around them on fine strings so that they looked suspended in air.

"O-ho!" came the ecstatic voice of the Feudal Lord, looking up from his chicken to the arrivals. Sai and Kakashi were seated beside him. "Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto. Alas, I am able to repay a small bit of the favor I owe you for saving my life. Please, please, sit down and be comfortable!"

The three of them sat in the remaining seats, Sakura having some trouble so that Naruto aided her with the pull of her hand and one hand on her waist. Kakashi eyed the three of them with a boyish glint in his eye as Jun called for food fit for three.

"You look a little beat up, Naruto," said the silver-haired man. He set his chopsticks aside, finished eating, and Naruto inwardly scrunched his face in defeat. At this rate, he would _never_ see the man with his mask off.

"We ran into trouble along the way." There was a hidden meaning to the "trouble" they had run in to, but he saved his sideways glances to Sasuke and Sakura for another time. A smile, and then, "Nothing we couldn't handle."

"What about you?" asked Sakura.

"We came an hour ago or so. They have odd tactics," Sai spoke for them, his indifferent face holding a hint of thoughtfulness as he twirled his chopsticks in his noodles. "We did not need to hide for long, for they had already retreated. I am assuming they sensed you in their nearby radius and thought one of you had Jun-san."

"The important thing is, we are here, the villagers are happy, I am happy, and we are celebrating!"

Sasuke looked at Sai. Sai looked back at Sasuke, smiling. But both of them looked at Jun from the corners of their eyes, and for the first time since they had met, Sasuke and Sai agreed on something: they were not to trust the Feudal Lord.

Sai cocked his head to the side, his fake smile widening as conversation erupted around him. "Traitor," he spat much like he had done the first day he had met Sasuke face-to-face since his return, smile still in place. He turned away from Sasuke's stoic face and joined in on the conversation with Kakashi and Naruto.

Sasuke was not in the mood to become angered over Sai's words. He was tired. Of everything. He sunk back into his chair with a silent sigh, suddenly not hungry. He wanted to know what he had done to Sai. Being a traitor of Konoha did not seem enough.

* * *

Night had fallen again, and everyone had almost fallen asleep.

After the feast, Jun had shown the team around his residence, which had become more palace-like with each passing chandelier, each passing jade statue, and each passing hallway filled with doors. He offered them to stay in one of his many guest rooms, saying he would leave no later than five days. At this, Kakashi was reluctant. He thought five days was too long – they needed to keep the mission going, and they still had to bring Jun to Konoha for a meeting with the Hokage. The sooner they could, the sooner they could put a complete stop to the enemy.

Jun, however, would not have it, and Kakashi was forced to comply.

"Each of you will have your own room," he said happily, shining his dazzling smile. "Please make yourselves comfortable. I have much to repay you for."

"It's nothing. Really," Sakura insisted.

But even she and Kakashi could not deny the sudden pampering they were receiving compared to the wooden floors, dirt grounds, and bread and berries they had gotten used to.

Jun led each member to their own room – Kakashi and Sai had the rooms on either side of him for surveillance reasons, while Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura took the rooms opposite the hall. Each teammate entered their room one-by-one, until Sakura was the only one left with Jun. He smiled at her. She felt his smile, and smiled back.

"Last but not least, a room for the lovely lady," he said, opening the door and pushing her gently on her back so that she could enter.

"Thank you, Jun-san," she told him. She suddenly stiffened. Jun's hand had dropped from her back and momentarily brushed against her rear. He said nothing, though, and so she assumed it to be an accident. With another smile, she bid him good night.

* * *

Even on the best bed he had felt in a long, long, _long_ time, Sasuke still could not sleep.

He lay on his back, hands behind his head, chest rising and falling in a soft inhale and exhale. He wanted to sleep so badly. He wanted to soothe his beating heart, to let it rest from its constant beating, to remember what a _dream_ was, but he could not. He did not think he ever could, ever again. Somewhat frustrated, he turned so that he lay on his side and stared into the darkness of the room. The outline of a closet blinked back at him.

The outline of something else blinked back at him from the corner of his eye. He laid still for a moment, the steel cogs in his mind spinning wildly in an attempt to make out the figure before he moved. It was a human, definitely. Not feminine, so Sakura was out of the list of suspects, and too tall to be anyone else on his team. And anyone who was not part of his team was his enemy.

Sasuke sprung up from his bed, kunai immediately in his hand as he sailed forward to his supposed assailant. There was a clatter, a hum, and Sasuke found himself suddenly alone in his room. There was no trace of anyone having ever been there, of any shadow having ever snuck around.

The Uchiha stared around for a few moments in puzzlement. He had been _so sure_ there had been someone. But the single window in his room had not opened, the curtains had not rattled, nor had the door moved an inch from its closed state. Sasuke was, however, an Uchiha. He refused to deem himself crazy. Refused to deem the figure a hallucination. Someone who had wanted to see him had been there, and now that someone was out _there_.

Yeah.

Sasuke was not sleeping tonight.

* * *

A surprise awaited Sakura as she exited her bathroom in her sleeping clothing: Jun. She felt his presence, heard his voiced apology for having startled her, and knew he was standing by the door. He smiled his dazzling smile shyly, as though in another apology for having startled her, and leaned in her doorway.

"Hello, Jun-san," she said, hoping her bedroom yukata revealed nothing. "I thought you would surely be asleep."

He laughed a little, a rhythmic chime that made Sakura smile. "You're clever for having noticed me. Being blind does not hinder you much, I see."

"I have had some time to rest and regain my energy, so my senses have heightened." She bent down to wrap her hair in a towel. When she bent back up, she could feel Jun standing in front of her. Unconsciously, her foot took a step back.

"Night is the only time I have for myself," he spoke softly. "This village is so beautiful at night. I wish you could see it, Sakura."

"I can imagine," she whispered, because the silence felt so perfect, she was afraid to break it.

His breath was closer. A part of Sakura wanted to push him away, to tell him that she was feeling uncomfortable. But there was a part of her – she wasn't sure where it came from, but it was there – that enjoyed the tingling sensation that came from his warm breath on her neck, that giggled from the situation she could only enjoy in books of romance: she, just freshly out from a shower, alone in the room with Jun, with the moon probably out and shining between her curtains. Something secretive. Something her younger Sakura used to dream of.

_(With Sasuke)_

"I used to always take a walk at night," the Feudal Lord carried on, and they were moving now. Sakura felt awkward standing, and so she had backed up until she felt the wall beneath her, something to hold her up so her legs did not fall. Jun followed. "Just to see the beauty. But alas, Sakura, I can do so no longer, for I have enemies."

She felt his hand brush against her forehead to sweep away a rebellious strand of pink hair, and she let him do so. Her head bent to the side, the towel unraveling and falling to the floor.

"But that's okay," Jun whispered to her, his breath now hot on her neck. "Because I can take a walk down the hall and see the most beautiful thing in the world."

Her heart jumped suddenly. Jun's lips were pressed against her bare neck, soft and gentle. Warning lights flashed before her blind eyes, sirens going off in her head, and she knew this was all wrong, wrong, wrong _(no matter how much she enjoyed it)_ and that he had to get off, off, off.

"Jun, please," she whispered, managing to bring her hands to his chest to push him away lightly. His lips were removed from her neck, leaving a warm sensation where they had once been.

"Sakura –"

"You should go."

Sakura felt him pause, as if he was contemplating what he should do next, but he soon said good night and turned to leave. The door shut behind him. A long sigh escaped her lips from the breath she had been holding and she thanked the wall for being there to hold her up. She was unsure. Unsure of whether to be entirely frightened that the Feudal Lord had just kissed her neck, that he was in love with her, or entirely giddy that she had finally managed to have a movie-like moment she had been wanting when she was thirteen.

Now, she settled on the later.

Later, she would settle for the former.

* * *

Naruto woke up suddenly.

He did not know why.

Blinking in the darkness, he shrugged off the odd feeling in the pit of his stomach, and went back to sleep.


	10. Acrimonious

**Author's Note:** Look! Look! It's _not_ a month/two months late!

I feel accomplished. And I'm getting somewhere with this story!

Thank you all for reading and reviewing! Enjoy!

So who started school? I don't start until the 18th for Ramadan-related reasons.

**Chapter Ten**  
…**:::Acrimonious:::…**

The Feudal Lord took it upon his duty to show the team around first thing in the morning, after yet another lavish meal prepared for them. He showed them the frozen lake and the children that played on it so joyously in their ice skates, the plantation of evergreen trees and the dirt of the plantation where fruit trees had once blossomed in the spring, the old-fashioned marketplace that was bustling with morning energy as villagers reached over carts and stands to purchase their freshly grown necessities.

Some of the teammates could care less.

Sai was somewhat intrigued by the sights, his mind translating each image into an art piece. He mentally picked out the medium he would use for each sight (_Watercolor for the frozen lake? Seems appropriate)_, the angle (_If you look at that apple stand from this side, the sun catches it just right)_, but knowing he would never paint any of the silent portraits anywhere other than his mind. Not entirely part of the mission, however, he continued to nonchalantly wander behind Jun as he introduced each new sight.

Sakura, as she had done the second she woke up, was contemplating what had happened last night. Part of her was unconsciously imagining every muscle that stood out on the Feudal Lord's bare arm as he pointed to a lavish tower in the distance and explained it. Another part of her was shaking in terror. The largest part of her, however, was attempting to assess the situation with a calm, reasonable, rational mind and conclude that should Jun try anything again, she would simply have to tell him that she was here for business and could not partake in romantic endeavors.

Yeah, that was it.

It was much better than what she had first come up with: a bubble of the remains of Inner Sakura had burst and shouted within her, _KICK HIS ASS!_

Kakashi was just wondering what the _hell_ they would be doing in a village like _this_ for the next four days.

"Jun-san, I really believe you should rethink your decision to stay here for another four days, as the enemy may return –"

A merry jingle of laughter. "I understand your concern, Hatake-san, but my villagers need me."

Kakashi looked around at the villagers who simply waved, bowed, or exchanged bellowing greetings of good morning at the Feudal Lord as he walked by. What did they need him for? Decoration? But Kakashi sighed regardless, remembering the slogan of a restaurant he had once eaten at. _The customer's always right._

The team stocked up on medical supplies at a local pharmacy, each of them buying their own necessities before allowing Sakura to gather the bulk of the supplies for her own inventory. It was all they could stock up on. Being a village lacking ninja, there were no weapons, no tactical items to purchase. Kakashi would have to do inventory on their weapons sooner or later. Surely they were low on them.

And that was it. That was all they could do in that village: look around and stock up. Meals were taken care of by the Feudal Lord. Entertainment consisted of ice skating, cafés with their doses of guests, and playing in the park on the wintery fields, and although the team was leaning towards any one of the three, they had to stake out the entirety of the village for the first day in order to gain a sense of its environment, its possible entrances, its weaknesses, and its villagers. After all, they would be staying and protecting Jun there for the next four days.

With the coming of dusk, Jun had requested that they follow him to the hills on the other side of the lake for the most marvelous of all sights in the entirety of his village. He came to an abrupt halt at the top of the highest hill, sat down directly in the mounds of snow, and crossed his legs as he stared forward.

Confused, the rest of the team did so as well.

"Wait for it," he said breathlessly.

It was the sunset. At just the right angle of view, the sun's rays of orange, pink, purple, and red hues scattered over the horizon and shone delicately onto the surface of the lake to create a miniature aurora borealis. The ice gleamed as if the lake was made of crystal and diamonds rather than frozen water, and where the light of the sunset hit the cracks reflected a small-scale rainbow that curved to the next crack.

Sai watched with an indifference façade. Sasuke could not have cared less. Kakashi was intrigued. Naruto smiled giddily. Jun was in absolute awe, his hazel eyes twinkling with the colors of the sunset. And Sakura? Sakura could not see, but she was in awe nonetheless – not at the beautiful sight that Jun described to her beneath his breath that left her breathless and wanting to shake Sai into painting it for her.

She was in awe at Jun. He was the perfect character in a romantic novel: handsome, chivalric, gentlemanly, and romantic. He had proper manners, he showed everyone respect and did not take his own by force, he saw the beauty in sunsets, and he could charm her until her knees were weak. And he treated her like she was the world. Sakura was surprised she had not fallen in love with him then and there, with the way his hazel eyes lit up at the sight of the falling sun, or the way he smiled pensively as he watched.

But she didn't.

She didn't fall in love with him, however close she was, and she could not for the life of her figure out why. He respected her, and that was all Sakura ever wanted: to be respected, to be seen as an equal. So why was it that she was not head over heels with the man?

He was perfect. Maybe too perfect.

* * *

Kakashi still wondered what they were going to do in four days, but he stopped wondering after he began to visit cafés at night with Jun and Sai, and sometimes Sasuke. They would sit in the cushy seats over tea or hot chocolate and not only talk amongst themselves, but with what seemed to be the entirety of the village. The villagers were friendly, pulling up their chairs next to the Feudal Lord and sharing their own stories about the other villages and towns and ninja, and Kakashi found himself learning information he had never known.

Sasuke did not want to stay alone in the Feudal Lord's residence. He did not trust the place. Every night, he felt an odd presence in his room, leaving him to jerk into a sitting position, his heart hammering in his chest. And every night, there was nothing in his room upon inspection. But he did not like the hustle and bustle and overall overly happy nature of the café where he would have to keep his Sharingan on display in order to keep up with every conversation, nor did he enjoy ice skating and playing at the park. So he was stuck wandering around the town in his own solitude every morning and every night.

Naruto was out to have his fun.

_"Sakura,"_ he mouthed out of habit, knocking on her door on the second night as Jun, Kakashi, and Sai were getting ready to leave.

"Naruto? Is that you?" She cursed her jumping heart thinking it was Jun.

The blond entered the room, taking her hand gently in his and doing his best to write in her hand: I-C-E S-K-A-T-I-N-G-?

Sakura laughed slightly. Music to Naruto's ears.

"I don't think you'd like it if I went ice skating, Naruto," she said, taking her hand back. "You'd have to be pretty patient with me."

Naruto frowned. He wanted to tell her that of course he'd be patient, just for her. He'd wait for the end of the world, just for her. But it was too much to write on the palm of her hand and so he tugged gently on her wrist, hoping she got the hint.

"Are you sure? I could always just go with Kakashi, Jun, and Sai –"

Naruto tugged once again on the wrist of her hand. He led her out of her room where she felt the sting of the winter against her unprotected face, to the shack by the lake where an old man allowed him two pairs of ice skates for a small fee, and to the bench by the lake where they sat, tying the skates in their silence.

"Have you ever been ice skating before?" Sakura asked him, turning her emerald eyes in his direction when she had finished tying her skates. Naruto reached out to shake her head, no. He had never been ice skating, ever. Not even normal skating. His childhood had not called for it.

Sakura smiled.

"So wait, _you're_ the one that's going to be leading me, but _I'm _the only one out of us that's ever been ice skating?"

She didn't catch his sheepish smile, but she knew it was there. She imagined him, _How hard can it be? _Even with her doubts, she let him pull her up and guide her to the surface of the lake where he stood steadily, Sakura's fingers slipped between his own.

"Standing is nice," she told him with a laugh. "But it's called ice _skating_, not standing, Naruto."

Naruto opened his mouth to give a silent bout of laughter, tugging on her hand again as he put one foot forward. But he slipped, falling with Sakura still holding tightly onto his hand so that she, too, fell, in a pile of limbs and laughter.

It was like that for the whole morning, the two of them holding onto each other for support – Naruto because he did not know how to skate, and Sakura because she did not know the way. They slipped and slid and skated and stopped and snorted and snickered until the sunset came again and they left for dinner back at the residence before Kakashi took them to train in the shadows of the night.

Sasuke felt like he was being watched again, that night. And again, he shot up in bed, looking around. And again he spotted a shadow lurking, this time just outside his window. But again, the shadow was gone, trying to force him to think that it was just a figment of his imagination, and he laid his head back on his pillow, yet his eyes were wide, wide open.

Then came the third morning. Sakura bounced playfully into Naruto's room, asking him if he wanted to go to the park with her because really, it was the first time they had had a break and so much fun in a long time. Naruto, of course, could not disagree, and the two of them soon found themselves challenging each other to see how high they could swing.

"This challenge is useless!" Sakura cried with a laugh as the air whipped past her ears. "I can't see if I beat you or not, and you can't even say if you beat me!"

They kept swinging anyway. Naruto let Sakura beat him, but she would never know.

Sasuke did not jerk forward that night. He had never gone to bed. He had simply moved an armchair in his room to barricade the door and had sat in the armchair all night, wide awake. There was one point where he swore – he _swore!_ – he saw a shadow moving outside, but upon further inspection, there was nothing.

Sasuke had to get out of that house.

The fourth morning came, and Naruto stood in front of Sasuke's door holding Sakura by the wrist.

_"Come _on_, Sasuke!"_ he whined, still managing a grin._ "If you don't like ice skating, we can go swing or play on the slides!"_

Sasuke adamantly denied.

Sakura giggled inwardly, trying and failing to imagine Sasuke gliding along the icy lake or trying to swing as high as he could.

_"But all you do is walk around all day. It's kind of lonely, don't you think?"_

_ Lonely?_ Sasuke thought, his facial expression remaining the same despite the screaming sarcasm. _Lonely? Being with two guys and dozens of to-be-killed prisoners for a few years. Oh hell no, that's not lonely at all!_

_ "Please? You don't have to play, okay? You can just watch and talk to us and we can keep you company. Please? Please? Please? Please?" _Naruto went into a chant of pleases and Sasuke knew he would not stop until he agreed. With a sigh, he turned around to grab a random shirt to throw over his head (he had been training alone and did not bother putting one on, knowing Sakura was blind) before he left his room. It would be good to not be paranoid for a few moments.

Sasuke did end up playing with them, however. He had climbed up on top of the monkey bars, sitting there in his silence as he watched Sakura and Naruto compete against who could swing the highest. He frowned slightly, watching Naruto stop swinging for a few moments so he could watch Sakura soar past him before he would continue again.

Naruto had jumped off, declaring in his silence that Sakura had won. He turned to face Sasuke and waggled his eyebrows.

_"I bet I could beat you, Uchiha,"_ he said. _"I bet I could jump off the swings and land farther than you."_

"I won't be tempted by your petty ridicule," Sasuke replied with an arrogant smirk. He crossed his arms over his chest and swung his dangling legs from the monkey bars.

"Come on, Sasuke," Sakura joined in (to Sasuke's surprise). "Whoever wins gets a prize."

"What prize?"

_"Ramen!"_ Naruto suggested. _"The other person pays for ramen!"_

"I don't live off of ramen, you idiot."

_"Fine! You pick something. It has to be food-related, though, or else that's not fair!"_

Sasuke smirked. "I have to abide by your gluttonous standards?" But he heaved himself off of the monkey bars to land on his feet in front of Naruto. Their noses were inches apart. "Tomatoes," he said. "A package of them."

_"Fine."_

"Fine."

They shook on it.

Sakura stood between their swings as they settled themselves, acting as the referee. It had been years since Sasuke had been on a swing. He gave an experimental swing of his legs, finding that he did, in fact, remember how to swing, and brought his eyes to Sakura.

"No ninja jutsus," she said. "No chakra pushes. Just raw power. Whoever lands the furthest has to pay for the other's food of choice. Okay?"

Two pointless nods of agreement.

"On your marks! Get set!"

Naruto and Sasuke pulled their swings back, locking their knees to hold their positions. They shot each other smug glances.

"Go!"

And they were off.

Naruto had too much adrenaline to feel the nostalgia of the moment. It would only be until later, when he was safely in his bed and staring at the ceiling, would he think back and be emotionally moved. He and Sasuke were competing against each other again, like they had done years back. They were neck-in-neck, acting like the innocent fools they had once been, trying to beat the other in a show of who was more powerful. Except this time, they knew they had grown and progressed and strengthened.

This time, it was just for fun.

"On three!" Sasuke shouted after several minutes of swinging. He turned to Naruto, waiting for the blond's nod of approval, and focused all of his concentration on jumping over the monkey bars. If he could just make it to the monkey bars . . .

"One! . . . Two! . . . Three!"

The two boys thrust themselves forwards, soaring through the air with their legs just ahead of them. Sakura laughed as she felt the wind from their launch, turning around to follow them unconsciously. She heard one pair of feet land gracefully to the floor, and then a _CLANG!_ of metal as a body came into contact with the monkey bars. Her heart thudded irregularly for a second.

"Oh gosh, Naruto, are you all right?" she cried, running to the monkey bars.

A hand caught her shoulder and she turned instinctively, feeling Naruto reach for her palm. But if Naruto was the one who had landed on the floor, that meant . . .

Naruto's mouth suddenly opened in a roar of silent laughter at the sight in front of him. _"Okay, okay, you win,"_ he mouthed when he could breathe. _"But –" _chuckle _"- where's a camera when you need one? Or Sai! Oh my God, Sakura, get Sai!"_

But Sakura did not hear him, nor did she understand what was going on. She could not see the Uchiha dangling upside down from the monkey bars, one leg stuck and hooked behind one bar and the other bent in the air. His hair was comically stuck up in all places, his face – from what Naruto could see that was not obscured by his wrinkling shirt – red from the blood quickly flowing to it.

"Just shut up and help me," Sasuke snarled at him, not amused.

It took quite an effort for Sasuke to become untangled from the monkey bars, during which Sakura finally understood what had happened and had laughed enough for both her and Naruto. Sasuke crossed his arms and attempted his best glare.

"A little more and I would've made it past them," he tried to reason. Naruto just slapped him on the shoulder, mouth open in laughter, and led the way to the market place. Sasuke was _going_ to think about sharing his tomatoes, but now . . . oh no. They were _all_ his. Naruto be damned.

That night – their last night – came quickly. Dinner was served, the team was stuffed, and they made their ways to training with Kakashi. It was especially rigorous, that session. Kakashi wanted to take advantage of the fact that it was their last night for a few days to train, and so he worked them out to their very core until their clothes were soaked with sweat and they stumbled to him when they were over.

"No one needs a piggyback ride?" he asked jokingly when he saw them bend over to regain their breaths. He received glares from all three of them. Sai had stayed with Jun. "Okay, okay, come on. We'll finish early today so you can get a good night's rest."

A good night's rest was what two of them did _not_ get.

Naruto had gone to sleep almost immediately, his body too tired after giving it his all during the training session and a relaxing warm shower. Sasuke, loathing his room and dreading his return to it, had taken a quick shower and had gone wandering about the entirety of the Feudal Lord's residence. Sakura soaked herself in a bath.

When she stepped out, her bedroom yukata tied tightly around her waist and her hair wrapped in a towel, she jumped slightly. There was a presence in her room. And she knew – she just _knew_ – it was Jun.

"Jun-san," she greeted, hoping her voice did not betray the confusion and chaos that was going on in her mind.

"Ah, Sakura, I thought I would stop by again," he replied, but his reply was not loud enough to mask the soft _click_ of the lock from the door. Sakura's heart suddenly began pounding wildly in her chest.

"Jun-san, please." She backed up slightly. "I'm very tired tonight, and I honestly don't think this should be going on in the first place. You're a very charming man, but –"

He was right in front of her all of a sudden, a finger to her lips.

"But what, Sakura?" he asked softly. One of his hands brushed against her cheek when it found no stray strand of pink hair to brush away.

She turned away, her hands coming up to push lightly against his chest, telling him to please, please go away because she really was not in the mood and she did not like him like that.

"Please, Sakura," he pleaded right back. "You're beautiful. Inside and out. Never before have I –"

"I have to go," she told him before she sidled against the wall and moved to grope blindly for the door. It was futile. From where she moved, she did not know the direction of the door, or where the nearest wall was, or why her heart was seconds away from exploding in her chest.

"Sakura, if you would just let me –"

"Jun, stop."

No suffixes. No fear in her voice. But she was shaking ever-so-slightly, and he knew it.

"Please, do not be afraid . . ."

She was Haruno Sakura. She was a ninja who had killed, who had beaten enemies with the might of her inhuman strength.

But she was blind, and unbearably tired.

And the door was out of her sight.

Jun was backing her into a wall again. Every time Sakura felt his hot breath (it wasn't warm anymore, like it had been once against her freshly showered body; it was hot, hot, hot against her flushed skin) on her bare neck, she stepped back, and he stepped forward, and the cycle would begin again, until she felt her back against wood.

"Jun, really, stop," she told him, bringing her hands up to push his chest from hers. "This is inappropriate."

"What is so inappropriate about love, my dear?"

And he bent down to kiss her neck.

Sakura could not help the yelp of surprise she uttered at the touch of his lips to her neck. It had been such a different touch from before. This one felt wrong. So wrong. She pushed him violently from her and ran to her left. She wished at that moment he was not the Feudal Lord, that she was not protecting him, and that she had not wasted most of her chakra on their training session, or she would have gathered the power to her fists and launched him through four walls of the mansion.

Fear tore away at her from the inside. Her breath quickened, and she stumbled over air, crashing into the nearby wall head-first. The towel had long since unraveled from her hair.

"Now, now, Sakura, please, don't –"

"Jun!"

"I'm not trying to hurt you, Sakura –"

"Jun-san, _stop!"_

The concern was there in his voice, no doubt, but so was what she thought was lust. He kept his voice to a low, tender level, but he did not stop. She felt his body hovering over hers. Hands grabbed her waist, pulling her up from the floor, but she struggled as viciously as her aching limbs would allow her. Her voice rose with every call of his name.

"Sakura, please, don't be this way."

It disgusted her how calm he was.

"Just stop struggling and I promise I won't hurt you."

The bruising grip on her waist said otherwise. Her thighs came in painful contact with the sharp corners of the bed and, paralyzed by the sudden pain, she collapsed forwards onto the mattress. Powerful fingers closed around her wrists, turning her over. Her knees were bent over the edge of the bed.

"JUN!"

He closed the gap between his body and hers with a crushing push, his hands holding Sakura's wrists to the sides of her head as she struggled from his grip.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Sakura," he said, his eyebrows up in feigned sorrow. "Really. I can treat you right –"

"This isn't the way I want to be treated!" she screamed at him.

She was seconds away from discarding his title as Feudal Lord and punching him straight in the face with what little chakra she had. It would be enough.

"You're beautiful," he told her, and he bent his face down so that his nose hovered just above the dip of her neck to her shoulder, inhaling softly. Sakura shivered in disgust, but her sightless eyes opened wide as the brunt of the situation finally hit her.

And she was helpless.

She wouldn't let the tears come, no, but she was _so angry!_ So angry that she always managed to land herself into situations where she was completely helpless. So angry that no matter what she did, not matter how much she _tried_ to show her male teammates that she was _just as good as them_, she was always the one in need of help. Her eyes stung with the unshed tears, her teeth gritted at the thoughts and at the strain of her struggles. She didn't care if Jun called her beautiful. She didn't care if a Feudal Lord was infatuated. As long as she was helpless, and as long as she continued to feel helpless, she would never be able to live with herself.

He had pinned both of her hands above her head now. She felt his free hand move up, and up, and up, along the sides of her body, and his face was nuzzling her neck. She fiercely tried to push him off, calling his name, screaming, but she was _too tired_, _too tired, too tired –_

And suddenly, he was off of her.

Sakura blinked in bewilderment and sat up suddenly when she heard the unmistakable crash of a body against the walls. A pause, and then what sounded like glass shattering.

"U-U-Uchiha-kun."

Sakura's heart beat even more wildly than before. She heard, through the deafening silence that followed, Sasuke's unmistakable hiss.

"Don't you fucking lay a hand on her."

"I was not trying to –"

"You're not the deaf one here!" His voice rang out in an angry bark. "If you weren't part of the mission, and I wasn't trying to make a good impression on the Hokage, I would rip your throat out and punch it through your heart –"

"This is no way to treat your elder!"

"That is no way to treat her, either!"

The silence that followed was a painful one. Sakura could feel the tension pressing her into the bed. Sasuke's breathing was audible as well: fast, harsh, loud. She wondered what he had done, and vaguely wondered why he was so angry, or how he had known Jun was in her room.

"Sasuke."

She knew he had turned to face her. She could imagine the dangerous swirl of his Sharingan.

"It's okay. Really."

_Please, please let me leave with whatever dignity I have._

His bitter reply was immediate. "It's okay for him to take advantage of your disability? To try and _rape_ you?"

"I was not trying to –"

"You shut up!" Sasuke roared, and even the windows rattled in fear.

Jun listened for the sake of his life. The insane glint in Sasuke's eye frightened him, but he would never admit it.

"I want you to get out."

Jun adamantly remained.

"If you get out now, I will not tell Kakashi about this, and I will resist the urge to give you up to the enemy should they ever decide to attack again.

"You would not dare," Jun spoke threateningly.

Sakura did not hear the three steps Sasuke made to stand in front of Jun. She did, however, hear Jun grunt in what she knew was pain, glass falling to the floor in paradoxical chimes.

"Sasuke, please, you can't hurt him –"

"Sakura."

The tone of his voice was ominous. Sakura imagined Sasuke holding Jun by the front of his shirt, suspending him several inches above the ground. That was exactly what the situation looked like.

Sasuke, standing near the door that had obviously been kicked open, Sharingan eyes activated in ominous warning. The Feudal Lord, blood flowing sickly from his nose and trickling down the side of his face, raised several inches into the air by Sasuke's hand that shook under the stress of his weight and of the day.

"You expect me to listen to _you?_ I treat her like royalty. I recognized her existence," Jun spoke. It sounded to Sakura like he owned her. She was revolted. "She is but a teammate to you." He turned his pleading eyes to her, but she could not see them. "But she is so much more than that to me."

"You know what? Good for you," spat Sasuke. "Fucking great. But if _this_ is the type of respect you give to women you like, you're going to get nowhere. Get the hell out of here before I force you, and you certainly wouldn't want Kakashi to know what you've done, now would you?"

They had a staring contest in the tensioned silence that followed, but Sasuke, with his flaming red eyes, won. He set Jun to his feet. The man gave Sakura one last, long look before he bid her goodnight and left with his dignity trailing behind him like the shattered glass that littered the floor.

Sakura did not know what to say in the silence that followed.

"Sasuke . . ." she tried, but still had nothing to say.

"Did he hurt you?"

"What?"

"Did he hurt you."

"No, I don't think so –"

He was pulling on her wrist now, forcefully dragging her from her room, and for a moment his hand was on the edge of her yukata to yank it down and oh _God _ that was embarrassing and her face was heating up and she was wondering if the rest of her outfit showed anything else at all and all she wanted to do was hide her face at the fact that she had, once again, been caught helpless by none other than Uchiha Sasuke and in her _yukata _nonetheless and her wrist was starting to hurt and ow ow ow ow ow –

"Sasuke, let _go!"_ She tried to wiggle free. She did not know where they were going.

But Sasuke could not hear her. Did not care. He pulled her by her wrist and tore down the hallway, entering furiously through Kakashi's door. Kakashi turned around, visible eye glinting with curiosity.

"Sasuke, what –?"

"Take it off," the Uchiha demanded, pushing Sakura forward.

Bewildered because the only thing on Sakura to take off was her yukata, Kakashi said, "Take what off?"

"Her blindness!" He knew his voice was louder than usual. He did not care. "Make her see again! Take it off _right now_, Kakashi."

Kakashi frowned. "I don't understand why –"

"Sasuke, please, stop," Sakura pleaded at the same time, suddenly feeling small and exposed and _just stop the shame, just end this day, please, please._

"Take it off, Kakashi, or I'll find a way to do so myself –!"

"Sasuke, calm down. What's going on?"

Sasuke was frustrated. He turned around for a split second, hands diving to his hair, before turning back and _wanting _Kakashi to understand but not entirely sure if he _should._ Kakashi was utterly confused and honestly, he was somewhat worried. Sasuke had never shown so much concern towards Sakura in a long time. He had never shown so much concern period. Just what had happened when he was away?

"Forget it," said Sasuke, and he turned around to leave.

"Sasuke, no, just wait –"

"Kakashi, forget about it."

"You can't just forget about something like this!"

* * *

He left, anyway, leaving behind a worried Kakashi and an ashamed Sakura.

That night, Sasuke seated himself in a new position.

He walked from his room, stood in front of Sakura's door, and sat down. And he did not leave. He leaned against the wall of the hallway, hands behind his head, eyes lidded from physical and mental weariness. He wondered just what he thought he was doing, staking out Sakura's room for any signs of Jun. It wasn't because he cared. Really. It wasn't – right? It was because of all things people thought they could do, taking advantage of other people was the lowest of the low.

Sasuke would know.

His mind quickly hopped on to another train of thought when he felt the oncoming shudder at the memories.

Sakura knew he was out there. She did not know how, but she could practically see his body through the broken door, most probably staring right at the door without moving. Knowing him, he would not sleep, and if her tired limbs were aching, Sasuke's probably were as well.

Mustering up whatever strength she had left after the long, long day, she lifted herself from her bed and moved to the door to open it slightly. Pink hair peeked out from behind the barrier, catching Sasuke's eyes.

"Hey," she whispered, knowing he was staring at her. "Sasuke, you really don't have to do this."

Silence.

_It makes me feel bad enough. Don't babysit me._

"Please, just go to sleep?"

Silence.

Sasuke inwardly snorted. Sleep. Good one, Sakura. But she did not know he could no longer sleep. Only Naruto and Kakashi knew.

"I'm staying," he whispered back to her. "Just because I don't like my room, anyway."

She pursed her lips, inwardly wondering if arguing with him was the best idea. He would never leave, she knew it. But a part of her wanted to argue, wanted to show Sasuke that she really didn't need his help anymore, that she could do things on her own.

One in the morning, however, was not the time.

She didn't say anything. She just closed her door and went back to her bed, but not back to sleep. Not tonight. She could still feel Jun's hands and lips on her, tonight.

* * *

Jun's breakfast was the most lavish of all, because it would be the last breakfast he would have at his residence for a long, long time. Sakura was completely silent, slowly nibbling on her food because she did not feel hungry in the least. Sasuke was seconds away from a permanent glare on his face, keeping his head down and his hands off of the food.

"You're not hungry, Sasuke?" Kakashi leaned in to whisper to him, growing more concerned with the Uchiha by the second. Naruto heard the whisper and looked up, furrowing his eyebrows.

Sasuke shook his head.

_"You need to keep your stamina and health up, Sasuke,"_ Naruto tried to reason with the boy, but Sasuke did not hear him.

Sai watched with a mischievous glimmer in his eye, taking note of the way Sasuke and Sakura sat furthest away from Jun and across from each other when Sasuke had usually sat alone and Sakura had usually taken a place near the Feudal Lord. Jun tried his best to play off any uneasiness, but Kakashi and Naruto did not seem to notice.

When their breakfast plates were being taken away, Kakashi put his hands together to begin informing the others of the layout for the next few days.

"There are four more checkpoints to reach until we finally make it to Konoha," he said, passing his eyes over each seated member at the table. "The first one will be a cabin, the next two will be villages, and the last will be a cabin."

"I shall be leaving for another week or so," Sai added with a slight bow of his head, eyes closed. "My separate mission calls for me to return, and I must do so immediately after breakfast."

Conversations broke off after then, Sai speaking to Jun about his position in Konoha, Naruto speaking to Kakashi about their upcoming disabilities, but Sasuke stayed in his brooding silence and Sakura kept to her awkward peace.

They were to head to their rooms to finish packing up and would meet back in half an hour. Sasuke did not need to pack up, he thought. His belongings, save for a spare shirt and pants, were still packed in his backpack. He sat on his bed, inwardly relieved to be leaving the haunting residence of the Feudal Lord.

A shuffle. Sasuke jerked his head to his door, Sharingan activated suddenly, but it was only Sai smiling back at him eerily.

"I don't like him," the odd boy said to Sasuke, coming in and closing the door behind him so they would not be overheard.

Sasuke thought it was a complete invasion of his personal space. Sai made himself comfortable on the chair in the corner of Sasuke's room, crossing his legs nonchalantly and splaying his hands on the hands of the chair.

"And I hate you." His smile was still in place. "But I do not trust the Feudal Lord, so I'm going to trust that you do not let any harm come to Sakura or Naruto."

Sasuke's glare hardened. "Why don't you run off and tell Kakashi instead if you hate me so much?"

Sai began to pick at his nails. "Hatake-san has not grown entirely suspicious of the Feudal Lord, and should he do so, the mission may take an unwanted twist. The Hokage still needs her information from the man."

"I am not a babysitter."

Sai stood up (smile, smile) and walked so that he stood in front of the seated Uchiha. With a movement too quick for Sasuke's naked eyes to comprehend, Sai grabbed the front of his shirt, face eerily indifferent and smile officially gone but eyes betraying the slightest flicker of anger. He leaned his face close, his voice barely a whisper.

"I need to know you're worth saving, Uchiha."

And he let Sasuke go, turning around and walking from the room.

Confusion, to Sasuke, was an understatement.

* * *

No enemies in sight.

The Feudal Lord had returned to his village for five days, encountered the enemy directly before returning, but did not _once_ encounter any enemies during his stay in his village or an hour into their departure from it.

And Kakashi was suspicious.

There was something wrong with the way the enemies were behaving. Surely they would have taken the Feudal Lord's vulnerability in his own village to attempt an attack. If not, then surely they would ambush them when they left the village, almost immediately. But it had been an _hour_ since they had packed up and taken to the icy snow, and there was not a chakra trace in a mile radius.

Kakashi squinted ahead out of thought. There was something wrong. Some ulterior motive to the enemies that they were not aware of. Something was driving them away from the Feudal Lord. Another part of the mission? A deal with some distant enemy? A ransom? Kakashi stayed in silence for another hour, his mind turning his cogs a mile a minute so that he came to several conclusions, none of which he knew was correct.

He would need more clues, he thought, and so for the time being, he changed his thoughts to someone else:

Sasuke.

Something was haunting the Uchiha. Yes, Kakashi was somewhat overjoyed to see that he had actually showed some concern for Sakura, but a part of him was concerned as to what had brought it up (and a part of him was somewhat dejected at the fact that his students had grown up slightly and he had not been around to witness the process). He knew he should not pry, but still. Kakashi was their leader, their sensei, and he cared far too much about the wellbeing of his teammates and students.

"It's been two weeks," he spoke as they walked. Sasuke did not turn around to look at him. Kakashi did not bother him. "That means when we reach the cabin at nightfall, you will each be given your third stage of disabilities – your toughest ones to deal with."

Naruto would be deaf, Sakura would be mute, and Sasuke would be blind, he thought. It would not pose as too much of a hassle for Sakura unless someone was injured, something Kakashi – with their unbelievable bad luck beneath ironic circumstances, as if they were storybook characters – was sure was inevitable. With a lack of enemies, Naruto and Sasuke would not be in too much trouble, either; Naruto would not need his stealth, and Sasuke would not be in _dire_ need of his eyes.

Kakashi turned his eyes to Jun. He was oddly silent, walking painstakingly slowly in the snow, his eyes less lambent than usual. A part of Kakashi believed it was because he had been forced, once again, to leave his village. A different part of Kakashi, however, felt it was for some unknown reason.

The silver-haired man sighed and ran a hand over his masked face. There was a lot to figure out, and he just wasn't sure he had enough time left.

Nightfall of the fifth day they had been at the village. They had reached the cabin carrying a thick blanket of silence around their shoulders. Kakashi set his bag down inside a room he would be sharing with Jun and Sai and set to work preparing a fire just outside of the cabin. Sakura set one of her bags on the table instead and began groping blindly inside for ingredients she had stocked up on to prepare for dinner.

A finger suddenly poked her in the back and she gave a startled jump, and twitched slightly when her hand was pulled away, palm faced up.

I-L-L M-A-K-E D-I-N-N-E-R

She grinned. "Are you sure? The most I've seen you make is a bowl of instant noodles."

Naruto pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, looking to Sasuke for help. The Uchiha smirked ever-so-slightly, one eyebrow lifting above sunken eyes.

"It'll be a lot easier if you let us do it," he spoke in monotone. "You'll be working with fire."

She backed off, not wanting to take ages having someone guide her hand over the fire. "I'll help Kakashi gather the wood," she said, turning to leave.

_Can you _see_ the wood?_ Sasuke thought wryly as he pulled the rest of the ingredients from her backpack. She had bought bread, turkey, lettuce, cheese, and – to Sasuke's silent delight – tomatoes. There was, however, several cans of soup (_That must have been heavy_, he thought, but Sakura had showed no discomfort) that would last them for three days. Sasuke set to work opening five cans and heating them over the fire as Naruto prepared the sandwiches.

"Would you like some help, Naruto?"

Jun had walked over with an uneasy smile, hands wringing. Naruto smiled brightly and moved aside to allow the man to pick up the ingredients to form sandwiches. They were silent for a few moments until Jun said, rather dejectedly, "I miss my village."

Naruto slid in a slice of turkey before glancing up at him with a softer smile. _"I miss mine, too," _he mouthed, hoping Jun would see. Without his voice, he wasn't very good at comforting. He trusted Jun would understand what he was trying to do.

"Ah, well, it was nice to be back for a while, I suppose." He managed another smile – there were smiles going around all day, it seemed – and finished up a sandwich. "I suppose I cannot complain too much in your presence. After all, you saved me."

"Naruto," Sakura called from outside, blatantly ignoring Jun. "The soup's done. Come on out so we can eat dinner."

Jun watched the blond leave to her before closing his eyes in a sigh. It could not get too awkward . . . could it?

* * *

The night seemed to dull. Sasuke found himself staring, bored, into the fire, allowing his mind to be taken siege by his thoughts and memories. He left his soup half-uneaten in front of him, hoping his blond teammate could finish it off for him before Kakashi found out but knowing Naruto would make more of a fuss than his ex-sensei.

Kakashi was growing tired of his thinking, of his progress-less contemplation, and of the silence that descended upon the team. He brushed away the snow from his knees and stood up, his tired, tired eye(s) roaming over his students and over the Feudal Lord sipping his soup beside Naruto.

"It's time," he said softly, clapping his gloved hands together once.

_Finally_, thought Sakura. Sasuke dreaded the time. Naruto did not care too much, glad to have been blind at the beginning.

There was no grand show of it this time. Everyone seemed to be tired – not physically, but just in general, of the mission and of themselves and of the drama they had endured as members of the world. Kakashi moved to Sakura first, whipping his fingers into invisibly fast seals and placing his hands over her eyes before placing them over her mouth.

She blinked away the darkness, not feeling quite dizzy since the darkness of the night eased the return of her sight, but her throat constricted, taking away from the moment. She found herself staring with slightly widened eyes at the Uchiha – _was that even Sasuke?_ – as Kakashi placed his hands over his ears and then over his sunken eyes. He had had no previous weight to lose, Sakura had thought, but she was staring at a body that proved her wrong. The Uchiha looked entirely worse for wear, completely taking away from the handsome visage he had once been.

Sasuke braced himself for the coming of permanent darkness, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, he sighed. Nothing. He blinked a few more times for the hell of it, but the result was still the total darkness. Panic? No, not really. The full extent did not reach him, and he doubted it ever would, even if he was engaged in battle. It would be an easy week, he thought to himself, the ghost of a smirk playing with his lips.

But why, why was he _so tired?_ His mind wanted to explore the pros and cons of being blind but he found himself unable to, his body telling him to sit back, lay back, close his blind eyes and sleep.

"Wait, wait, Kakashi-sensei! . . . Aaaaaaah . . ."

Naruto had his mouth open wide, letting out the continuous drone of noise with his head back. Kakashi had just finished blessing him with his voice once more.

". . . Naruto . . . what are you doing?"

"Wait! I want to hear my voice before I go deaf!"

Kakashi quickly put his hands over the ears of the blond.

"And now that that's done," he said, "It's time to head off for some rest. I'll be on duty first. Then Naruto, it will be your turn to be on duty for the rest of the night. Sasuke, you are to take my bed to ensure Jun has some protection for the night."

He did not miss the slight twitch of Sasuke's fingers at this command. Jun fidgeted nervously.

"Come on," Naruto said, laying one hand on Sasuke's shoulder so that he could guide him around the fire. "We've got a big week ahead of us!"

Sasuke cringed. "Idiot, your voice is louder than usual if you can't hear it."

"What's that, Sasuke? Your lips moved too fast."

_Oh joy . . ._

There was, of course, no sleep going on. And Kakashi knew it. With no enemies in sight (and still no enemies in sight, from what he could sense from his seat on the snowy roof of the cabin), their day tomorrow would not be too strenuous on the students who had just received their new disabilities. He knew Sakura was in her room figuring out hand signals. He knew Naruto was walking on tiptoes around the house to work on his stealth. And he knew Sasuke was sitting in Jun's room, eyes closed but senses wide for any sign of the enemy.

"Kakashi."

. . . Or maybe not.

Kakashi turned around, mildly surprised to see Sasuke on the roof with him, although the Uchiha groped carefully in front of him, fingers shaking from the cold of the melted snow.

"Sasuke," he frowned, "you should be watching over Jun."

"Naruto's doing that. I wanted to talk to you."

Sasuke had been wanting to talk to the man for a while, ever since he was back in the corner of his rented apartment with the ANBU surrounding him. Without his sense of hearing or ability to speak, however, he did not want to waste the energy. Being blind created the perfect opportunity, and he wanted the talk out of the way before the mission's danger turned high again. The casual night proved the prime opportunity.

"Oh?"

Kakashi raised one eyebrow and scooted over slightly to make room for Sasuke, his eyes still staring into the distance.

"What brought on this unexpected talk?"

Silence. For a while. Sasuke's eyes were looking in the same direction as Kakashi's, as if he, too, were searching for enemies in the distance. He shrugged ever-so-slightly with his bony shoulders, suddenly feeling tired again.

"You were ANBU once," he whispered instead. His eyes still focused on the trees in distance.

"Once," Kakashi whispered back, his shoulders tensing at the unexpected topic of the conversation. He suddenly felt the sting of the ANBU tattoo on his arm.

"If you'd never been my sensei . . ." Sasuke swallowed thickly there, eyes finally shifting to where his shaking fingers were curling into fists. "And you'd been one of the ANBU watching over me . . . what would you have done?"

_Oh._

_ That._

Kakashi found himself looking into blank black (finally, black) eyes, trying to decipher the question further.

_Would you have treated me that way?_

_ Would you have hurt me like that?_

"Turning rather sentimental, aren't you, Uchiha?" Kakashi wanted to say, to tease the boy, but the situation did not call for teasing and smartass remarks. The former sensei was rather worried about his former student. Uchiha Sasuke was not sentimental. Uchiha Sasuke did not get angry and storm into his room demanding things. Uchiha Sasuke did not have sunken eyes and choppy hair and a skeletal body.

Kakashi went into thought for a long time, staring into the distance harder as if it would give him inspiration. He sighed.

"Honestly?"

"Honestly."

Sasuke waited for the yes. His teeth gritted in a snarl and his hands curled into fists. Yes, yes, yes –

"No."

He knew he looked surprised, but Kakashi did not turn to stare at him. The man was still staring into the distance.

"The ANBU that handled you were young, some of them prodigies and others in their early twenties. Far too young to understand the extent of the Uchiha massacre." He saw Sasuke tense out of the corner of his eye. "But they'll do anything for Konoha, so they don't understand why you would possibly want to leave. But I . . ."

His eyebrows furrowed.

"I was very familiar with the Uchiha clan." A grinning Obito flashed before his eyes. His heart sank. "I know what they live for. What they strive for. And even if I didn't know who you were, I'd understand what drove you. And even if you were a traitor, I wouldn't make you suffer any more than you had to."

He turned to the Uchiha – finally, finally turned away and looked long and hard at the shell of what his former student had been and said, "Sasuke, what the hell did they do to you back there?"

But Sasuke stood up, face expressionless. He gave a whispered (_sincere?)_ thanks to Kakashi, didn't know what else to say, and turned to leave. Kakashi cursed. Everything he had done to try and reel the Uchiha back to earth had failed, from the Chunin exams to now.

He felt like a failure.

"Sasuke, really, stop." He reached forward – reached out to him, just one more try, one more try – and grabbed the boy's wrists to pull him back. "Come down and eat with me. Or at least have a talk with me. You're not looking too good –"

"Kakashi –"

"Don't 'Kakashi' me, Sasuke. I don't think your body can wait until we get back to Konoha –"

"Kakashi, really." His eyes were staring _right at him_. "Not tonight. I'm really tired."

_That's what I'm worried about_, Kakashi thought, but he watched Sasuke leave.

He really felt like a failure.

* * *

Naruto woke up, rejuvenated from his weariness and his odd bout of depression. He smiled warmly as he stood up, rubbing his eyes and making his way clumsily to the other room so he could say good morning to Jun and Sasuke.

His jaw dropped.

Sasuke, the boy he had seen sit in a corner every night for three months, who had given a new definition to the word 'insomniac', was _sleeping_. He lay flatly on the futon a few meters from Jun, on his back, and he was _sleeping,_ mouth open and eyes closed and eased breathing and all_._

Naruto grinned. Maybe, just maybe things were starting to finally look up for them.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto ran out of the room, his eyes wide as he practically crashed into the dining table where Jun, Kakashi, and Sakura sat.

"Kakashi-sensei!" he cried in desperation. "Sasuke isn't waking up!"


	11. Troublous

**Author's Note:** What's this? An update? Two weeks and four days after the previous ones?

So happy hauntings, everyone - and I know it's not Halloween. I've just started my senior year, and a lot of new administration is making a lot of new rules and a lot of new whatnot and stupidity and etc. on top of the previous whatnot and stupidity and etc. So it's pretty hectic.

And on top of that, Egypt is bestowing its lovely powers of technological deficiency and I am living on an internet USB stick used solely for homework - and now, updating. So hooray.

On the other hand! I LOVE your responses! Seriously! I might print off all my reviews and put them in a binder with the title "For Rainy Days". . . . Okay, maybe not, because 1) I have an Egyptian (not working) printer, and 2) Egypt does not have rainy days. But I love you guys!

Last words to end this rant:

**THIS CHAPTER MAY BE SLIGHTLY BORING.**

What? An author is saying the chapter is boring? Well yes, I'm being honest. I had to explain a lot, and lead up to a lot of things. **Now it's up to you guys to start workin' those mind cogs.** More and more clues are being revealed. But remember: with a boring chapter comes a SUPER EXCITING ONE. Meaning ACTION! EXCITEMENT! SUSPENSE! . . . next chapter.

Enjoy!

**Chapter Eleven**  
…**:::Troublous:::…**

Running to where Sasuke lay motionless was an understatement. Kakashi flew. He was not entirely sure how appearing at Sasuke's side quicker would be a benefit in any way, but it made him feel better. Naruto and Sakura were at his heels, with Jun following curiously behind.

Sasuke lay on his back, hands folded on his chest in what Kakashi would have been fooled for a sleeping position had Naruto just told him he had been shaking the Uchiha for several minutes. Kakashi tried himself, grabbing Sasuke by the shoulders and chanting his name until it was evident that Sasuke was just _not waking up._

It was not until he received a sharp poke to his shoulder did he realize Sakura had been trying to tell him that she was going to inspect the boy. Her disability was creating a hindrance already.

_Nice one, Hatake._

Swallowing thickly, Sakura placed her glowing hands over his chest. Her brow furrowed. The more her hands moved, the more her eyebrows drew together and her mouth twisted into a grim frown. She looked up.

_"There doesn't seem to be any sort of injury,"_ she said, _"but his nutrient levels are extremely low. And he didn't get any sleep yesterday –"_

"Sakura," Naruto interrupted. His sapphire eyes had been watching her lips move. "He hasn't slept for three months." He saw her eyes widen slightly.

_"His body crashed. Little food and no sleep for _three whole months!_ I'm surprised he's been holding out this long."_

"So what, he's going to sleep for three months?" asked Naruto. "Sleep off everything that he's missed?"

_"There's no telling how long he's going to be unconscious."_

Kakashi leaned back and slid one hand over his face, oddly growing frustrated at the situation. Sai had left, he cursed. There was no easy means of transportation for the Uchiha, and they could not stay in the cabin to wait for Sasuke to wake up, especially since Sakura had said the amount of time it would take was unknown.

"Sakura, please, just see if there's anything you can do," he said quietly as he tried to wrap his mind around their situation.

Unconscious Uchiha.

Feudal Lord in need of escorting.

No means of transportation other than walking.

Kakashi sighed and cursed. Cursed everything. Cursed Orochimaru. Cursed the Elders. Cursed the ANBU. But most of all, he cursed himself. Sakura turned to him, eyes set in apology as she told him there was nothing she could do; just as if Sasuke was merely sleeping, she could not wake him up.

"We can't stay here," he instructed, standing up at last. "This mission is about escorting the Feudal Lord. The next village is a day's travel away, about eleven hours of walking, less if we take a faster pace. I'll be carrying Sasuke."

He was inwardly slamming his head against a wall. _Carrying_ the Uchiha? While Kakashi had intended for this mission to be some sort of team rehabilitation, he did _not_ mean for it to turn into a single rehabilitation. He cursed himself above everyone – it was his fault Sasuke had ended up this way. His fault he hadn't done anything the second he noticed the decrease in weight, the darkness beneath his eyes, the weeks of insomnia. His fault he hadn't tried to reach out to Sasuke harder last night. If he had just tried a _little more . . ._

They were packing now. Everyone was bustling about the cabin, stopping to stare into the room Sasuke lay in whenever they passed the door, as if they were waiting to see the dark-haired boy suddenly jump up with his hands spread wide and screaming, "Ahh, I fooled you all!" rather uncharacteristically. It never happened, no matter how many times Naruto prayed for it.

Up Sasuke went, over Kakashi's right shoulder next to the silver-haired man's swinging bag, and out everyone went, back into the cold. Kakashi was ahead of the rest of the team to set the incredibly fast pace. From above, they looked like power walkers running a competition, like trekking ants in a mountain of snow.

"We'll make it in eight hours this way," Kakashi said, not turning around. Sakura relayed the message to Naruto. "We'll stop at a village, and we'll have time to set everything straight then."

Simple, Kakashi thought. No enemies in the surrounding fields. A fast pace. His team would be fine. That is, until he could feel the presence of someone that certainly was not on their team. And that was when Kakashi knew – oh, he knew now – that someone sick and twisted, cruel and unusual was in charge of their fate.

* * *

Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed.

_ He was quiet the entire time, the eyes of the ANBU watching him for the slightest hint of intention for escape. But he had no intention of escaping. He was going to show the Elders that he could withstand whatever kind of torture their twisted minds decided to inflict on him._

_ The ropes that bound his hands to the pole dug into his wrists. Brutal hands tore at his clothing, nails digging into his tender skin and drawing blood._

He gritted his teeth.

_"Seven days, you're out in the sun," one ANBU said behind his ox-faced mask. "Night falls and you're still there. Seven more days, you're ours."_

_ He stared at them through glaring eyes._

SLAP!

_"Don't look at me that way, you filthy traitor!"_

_ His head was jerked back by the roots of his hair and the world went black. Someone had placed a blindfold roughly over his eyes and was tying it with painful tugs behind his head._

_ "Can you see anything? Shake your head. Shake your fucking head!"_

_ He smirked and did no such thing, earning another slap to the face that drew blood. He spit out a puddle of his life liquid at the foot of one of the ANBU guards._

_ "I can't wait for the villagers to see you out there," he heard someone say, and there was cruel laughter all around._

_ He couldn't wait._

_

* * *

_"Sakura! Naruto! To the left!"

Naruto held tightly onto Jun as he sprung into the air to narrowly avoid the bolt of ice that came hurtling at them like a thrown dart. It split the team up: Naruto with Jun, Sakura to the right, and Kakashi with Sasuke just a little ahead.

"How many?"

"Five!"

Kakashi quickly dodged another oncoming ice missile, eyes narrowing. The enemy was enforcing their odd tactics again, attempting to take down one at a time. Had they taken him as the larger threat again? It seemed all ten were closing in on him, all of them attempting to take him out with ice jutsus from the left and lightning jutsus coming at him from the right.

He jumped and dodged and skidded and stared, trying to force the cogs in his mind to work faster to figure out just what was going on. Jutsus bombarded him. Ice missile after lightning strike after slicing air current attempted to put a stop to his movement, but he held tightly onto Sasuke and ran for their lives, retaliating with any jutsu that opposed their elements when he could.

There were more chakra presences, Kakashi suddenly sensed, and he gritted his teeth in agitation. Just what the heck was going on –?

ANBU.

The enemies had suddenly disappeared, leaving ANBU members in their wake. Kakashi narrowed his eyes, the sudden sight of fellow Konoha members surprising him yet bringing suspicion. Root ANBU, he thought – like Sai. Before he could open his mouth to speak to them, however, they disappeared. All of them.

_Okay, this is where I draw the line at sanity and cross over it._

The Root ANBU had been after the same enemy? But why?

The events had been so fast that Kakashi stopped just for a moment to recall what had happened. The enemies had come. Attacked. ANBU came? Attacked?

"Kakashi!" came Naruto's breathless voice, and Kakashi turned around to find the blond pulling at Jun's hand as he ran below. "We just saw –"

_"ANBU?"_

Sakura dropped gracefully to the branch Kakashi stood on, her head turned to face him so he would see her lips move.

"Three of them," Kakashi finished for her. "Root ANBU. Sai is supposed to be working with them."

"Couldn't they just be on different missions?" asked Naruto, trying his best to decipher Kakashi's lips fro behind his mask.

"Root ANBU only operates in a maximum of two groups. The odds are rather unlikely."

_"So Sai's mission is connected to ours?"_

The cogs of Kakashi's mind were getting rusted and old from their constant turning.

"Honestly," he said with a sigh, adjusting Sasuke's dead weight over his shoulder, "I'm not sure about anything anymore.

* * *

_A long line of villagers came to see Uchiha Sasuke tied to a pole in a secluded area of Konoha. To see the traitor, the scraps of the Uchiha clan, the pitiful excuse for a human that had killed Orochimaru. The sun beat mercilessly upon his porcelain skin, and his arms ached terribly from their position._

_ His heard had pounded in his chest at first when he heard voices all around him but could see no one. Darkness. Darkness like the shade of night that filtered through the windows of his parents' room. Darkness like the flashing first stage of Tsukuyomi. Darkness like the cell he had been introduced to one too many times at Orochimaru's lair. And although he was usually – no, always fearless, he was growing afraid of the dark. Quietness? Solitude? He loved. But solitude and darkness did not always go hand-in-hand._

_ The villagers were not allowed to touch his bare skin, or his arms tied behind his waist, or his burning back. They could only speak to him. They could tell him all about how much they hated him – and they did, too. They could tell him all about how traitorous he was – and they did, too. They could tell him all about how there was a reason all the Uchihas were dead, how unwanted he was, how lucky he was to have this second chance, how he had ruined his life and how the villagers would never find it in their power to see him as a member of their Konoha family again –_

_ – And they did, too._

_ He didn't care. Really. Konoha people had always been single-minded, idiotic wastes of space, with their Will of Fire theme that drove him insane. He allowed himself to stay because he had made the stupid mistake of being found, and should he leave, he would be killed. He was a man on a mission; to allow himself to be killed would clip the string to the kite that was his brother, and all his dreams of vengeance would fly away. It was simply the darkness that bothered him more than the burning of his skin._

_

* * *

_The shambles of the team made it to the next village.

Setting was the sun, but Jun did not stop to stare in mesmerized awe at its beauty. He was tired. He was not a trained ninja who could jump through the trees endlessly; he was a normal human being with a large title. Walking through the thickening snow for hours was not normality. And so, when they ventured through the gates of a small, snow-covered village, he could barely hold himself up in his relief.

It was an unusually small village. Naruto could see the end of it in the near distance, and could count the amount of buildings in it on his fingers and toes, but he thought it had a rather quaint look to it. Single-floored houses covered in snow were built in scattered, unsystematic places as if someone had thrown a handful of pushpins onto the blueprints of the village and proclaimed that the areas they landed on would be where the houses were built. He laughed to himself – it was his kind of planning.

The motel was only two floors and set at the heart of the quiet village, run by an old man who had given them the wrong keys for their rooms the first time and who spoke to Sakura after introductions were made and called her "Hatake-san".

"We've got a little clinic a few buildings down from here for that youngster o'er yer shoulder," he said as he handed Kakashi the real keys and gestured to Sasuke.

"Oh, he's not injured. He's just sleeping."

At least, Kakashi hoped he was.

He had placed Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto in a single room and he and Jun would be occupying the other. Naruto took the motionless boy from his shoulder with a promise to take care of him and a grin. Kakashi was left to his thoughts and heaved a sigh, putting one hand to his forehead and closing his eyes.

"If he does not wake up, you could call for backup from your village." Jun spoke up hesitantly, seeing Kakashi's weary struggle. "You can leave Sasuke here until the backup arrives."

The silver-haired man looked at him in silence, thinking. He knew the importance of the mission: returning Jun. _Just_ returning Jun, because Tsunade requested a highly important meeting with him. His mind, however, was adamant on returning to the motto he held so dearly to his principles: in the world of ninja, those who do not follow the rules are considered trash . . . but those who abandon their friends are even worse than trash.

The mission? Or Sasuke?

Kakashi did not sleep that night.

* * *

_There was one day he hated worse than the eternal darkness._

_ The long line of villagers had shortened before it disappeared for the day completely when what he thought was dinner time came around. He slumped as best as he could in his position, his heart beating loudly in his hears, and tried to sleep._

_ Sleep._

_ Ha._

_ The coming presence of someone woke him up anyway, and he straightened again, ready to take another pointless lecture from another pointless village. He turned his head to the steps of the figure and entertained himself with figuring out whether or not it was a boy or a girl, a man or a woman._

_ His heart stopped._

_ The figure did not say anything, but he knew. He _knew_ – and God _damn it!_ – he knew. All he could hear was crying. Choked sobbing, like whoever was staring right at him was trying to speak but could not from the overflow of emotion and tears._

_ Hands pounded against his chest suddenly, and now Sasuke was doubtless._

_ "You bastard!" came the watery roar._

_ The hands held no power. They hit lamely, in sync with each staccato sob. Sasuke, blind, kept silent until he felt the hands that pounded illegally against his chest slide against his sides as the figure in front of him fell to his knees._

_ "You bastard," came a quieter whisper. For a while, all Sasuke heard was crying, and then he heard silence. The figure had left. And suddenly, Sasuke was more afraid of the darkness than ever._

_

* * *

_"At least communicating is easier." Sakura heard the jingle of laughter she had not heard in a while and could not help but smile. Naruto, the epitome of optimism and golden rays of sunshine, stared at her with his sapphire eyes. Of course she could not help but smile, what with his own two rows of glistening teeth.

_"Unless I speak really, really quickly," _she told him with exaggerated lip movements.

"But you wouldn't do that to me." Naruto batted his eyes mockingly. His grin lessened to a smile as he stared at the motionless Uchiha. "If you can hear me, you bastard, get up and dance."

(_You bastard!)_

Naruto did not expect to receive a twitch in return. He jolted in his position suddenly, catching Sakura's eye, and put all his attention on the brunet.

"Sasuke?"

Nothing.

_"People twitch in their sleep, Naruto,"_ Sakura told him.

"Sasuke doesn't twitch."

The night moved on. Naruto and Sakura had little conversations with each other, Naruto's laughter ringing out loudly sometimes when he was truly amused and could not hear his own voice. Sakura asked him for advice on overcoming communication when she was mute.

"It's a lot of animation," he told her, grinning. "You always have to get peoples' attention, and you've got to stop assuming that they're always listening to you, you know? Otherwise you'll start trying to talk but no one will be watching you."

She grinned, too. _"Remember your blue and orange phase? That outlandish, obnoxious boy you used to be? You've grown up so much."_

Naruto's grin only widened. "I still have that blue and orange outfit somewhere."

The blond was pulling the covers over Sakura's body a few hours later when the pink-haired girl had fallen asleep reading a medical encyclopedia. He slipped the book from beneath her fine fingers, folded one of her slender arms over the other, and tucked her in with a whispered good night before he turned around.

"Sasuke!"

(_What do I say to you now? Huh? After everything I've done, Sasuke, after _everything_ I've done -!)_

Obsidian eyes were open and blending in with the dimly lit room. The Uchiha had not moved, but Naruto could tell he was definitely awake again. He excitedly crawled to the motionless boy and looked over him.

"Come on," he said. "We should get you something to eat. I'll just go and tell Kakashi-sensei . . . Sasuke?"

_(You don't even care, you bastard. You don't even care that we were hurt when you left us.)_

Naruto shook the boy very slightly and very gently, but Sasuke did not turn to face him. He simply rolled over to one side, one arm clenching his shoulder and the other flat out in front of him. The blond bit his lip, unsure of what to do.

"Come on, Sasuke," he urged more gently. "I'm going to go get Kakashi-sensei if you don't say something."

_(I tried so hard to bring you back. I wasn't going to stop, either, until you were back. But now you're here. What the hell am I supposed to do?)_

Sasuke could have said something, but Naruto could not see his face anymore. Naruto knew he should not have gotten angry, but he did. He was annoyed ever-so-slightly, his see-the-good-in-everyone nature growing tired of trying to put up with Sasuke every step of the way. But his help-everyone-possible attitude overwhelmed him and he sighed, standing up to see the sun peaking over the horizon (had he stayed up _that late?_) to retrieve Kakashi.

The silver-haired man jerked his head up the second Naruto stepped into his room, one bleary eye staring at him in confusion.

"Sasuke's awake," the blond whispered apologetically, thinking he had awoken the man. He heard the longest sigh of relief blow from beneath the mask of his sensei, watching the man stand up slowly from his bed and follow him out of the room.

Sasuke was still in the same position. Before Kakashi could even bend down and talk to him, the boy had said, rather bitterly, "I'm okay, Kakashi."

"Well, obviously not," came the drawling reply.

"Just getting used to the darkness."

Kakashi hummed in reply, his mind taking Sasuke's words so much further. He remembered what Sasuke did: the times the Uchiha endured with a blindfold over his eyes. His mind put two and two together and calculated four and a half.

"Oh, so to get used to the darkness, your body shut down completely for a day? I see. That makes perfect sense."

"Don't talk like you know me, Kakashi."

"We're playing this game again?"

"There is no game."

Kakashi shifted the weight to one leg and put a hand to his chin in feigned thinking. "So this isn't rather similar to the last time we spoke before you decided to run away to Orochimaru? I tied you to a tree and you told me that I couldn't speak like I knew you, yet I gave you a thousand reasons why I was the one who could relate to you the most."

He bent down closer to Sasuke, his presence ominous at that moment.

"If you don't want me to talk like I know you, how about you talk to me? Let me know you so I won't get the facts wrong. _Tell_ me just _what_ went on. I can't change it, but I can help you, Sasuke. That's what I'm here for."

_(I tried to help you, Sasuke! And you turned away from that! You turned away from me! You turned away from Kakashi-sensei, from Sakura, from Konoha, and all we wanted to do was help!_

_ You shut up, Naruto!)_

Sasuke remembered the darkness, and he allowed himself to be swallowed by it. Kakashi sighed. He was tired of failing.

He wouldn't fail. Not again.

The morning came officially. Sasuke had been left alone, Naruto had been left to sleep, and Kakashi had sat in his bed in an attempt to put together the pieces of the mission to form the bigger puzzle, but he was missing just _one piece._

The next morning, he found that one piece, and everything after that changed.

However, a lot occurred between the current morning and the next.

The entire team set out again to the next village; it would only be five hours away at a normal pace. Sasuke was falling in and out of focus, his malnourished body swaying from time to time and his knees buckling beneath him so that he fell to the snow, unsure of which direction to stand up in until Naruto was there to pull him by his arm and guide him again. Kakashi had wanted so badly to stay another night at the motel, but he knew he would simply be a hypocrite in Jun's eyes since he had forced the Feudal Lord to leave his own village. And so, Kakashi could only hope that rest in Konoha would fix the broken Uchiha.

The main event that unlocked the treasure chest to the final piece of the puzzle was another attack. Again came the enemy, and again the team formed a square around Jun so that they could protect him. But again, the enemy used their odd tactics and aimed to take out Sasuke.

Sasuke, the obvious _least_ threat.

Kakashi narrowed his visible eye. Something was wrong. They had always aimed for what Kakashi assumed to be the largest threat. Sasuke, who was completely helpless in that battle, who fell all over the place and was bumping against trees and allowing the enemy to knock him to the ground, was the least threat of all four of them.

At first, Kakashi thought they had simply been attempting to take out one corner of the square that protected Jun so they could attack from that corner. Kakashi's thoughts changed when they continued their attack on Sasuke even when he was far from the broken square. Changing tactics, Kakashi told the team to split up and fight, and he would protect Jun.

It had turned from protecting the Feudal Lord to protecting Sasuke.

Sakura was finally able to repay a little of what Sasuke had done for her back at the Feudal Lord's residence. Without her voice, she could not yell at Sasuke to watch out for the deadly, fiery punch aimed at his head, and so she ran forwards, chakra building in both of her arms, so that she could stand in front of the falling Uchiha. She put her arms up in defense from the punch, scorching her vulnerable skin in the process, and pushed the flaming arm away to send the figure hurtling into the distance with the sickly _crrrrack!_ of his arm echoing after him.

Naruto was thinking like Kakashi. He was worried, yes, but he wanted to stop worrying and find answers. Try as he might, he simply could not figure out why the enemy was attempting to kick around Sasuke like he was a rag doll.

The attack was quickly over when Kakashi, fed up with the enemy, made do of the remaining ninja and ordered his team to carry on, leaning over to whisper to Sakura to watch out for the dangerously wobbling Uchiha.

And still, Kakashi thought.

He thought in the uneventful time from the end of the attack to the entering of the village. He thought as he let Sakura lead them to the hotel (a rather lavish one at that) and order two rooms. He even thought as he settled himself down on his bed, and did not break that train of thought until Sakura came tentatively into his room.

_"Kakashi-sensei,"_ she mouthed, poking him forcefully on his shoulder so he would snap out of his trance and look at her. _"I was thinking we could all go to a restaurant to eat before night falls because we haven't had a decent meal in a while. Maybe that'll get Sasuke motivated."_

"That sounds like a good idea," her sensei replied wearily, but she did not miss the look in his eye that clearly told her he still was not completely with her. "But I've got to stay here for a while. Take Jun-san with you. Here."

He fished around in his back pocket for a second, producing several bills of cash.

"Dinner's on me."

_"Kakashi-sensei –"_

He smiled at her, his visible eye closing tightly. "Don't worry about it, Sakura." When she stood there still, he pushed her extended hands away gently and settled himself further into his bed. "Just make sure the whole team eats. I'm counting on you."

Sakura's chest swelled with pride and the ultimate need to not let her sensei down. She called Jun (rather awkwardly), Naruto, and Sasuke, telling them there was a restaurant nearby that they would be eating at. Her head buzzed with the urge to tell Naruto everything that had gone on in the past few days whenever Naruto tried to lure Jun from his quiet state with small talk. The Feudal Lord would simply smile and reply with a short response, nodding his head in appreciation.

The winter was reaching its peak before it would heat up for the oncoming spring. Blizzards became more frequent, dusting the tops of trees with its powdered snow. Jack Frost powered up and flew around to nip and bite at the slightest hint of exposed skin, his laughter but the faintest whistle of the wind, his sighs but the slightest ruffle of a scarf or a jacket.

Sakura felt Frost's laughter on her neck and pulled her cloak tighter around herself, moving a little faster to the lights in the distance. She shot a glance at Naruto, who was still attempting small talk with the Feudal Lord, and at Sasuke, who trudged through the snow as if it was almost painful.

A warm glow invited them into the restaurant, and Sakura dusted the snow off of her shoulders before she bowed slightly towards the waiter who seated them. Naruto watched the stray snowflakes fall from her unusually colored hair as if her head was a pink cloud from which the flakes fell in a flurry of snow. He stared, mesmerized, until Sakura tugged forcefully on his arm to lead him to their table.

The blond sat next to Jun when he saw Sakura sidle herself quickly next to Sasuke. He did not mind, especially when the menus came and the list of ramen took up an entire page.

"Have you eaten ramen?" he asked Jun. When the Feudal Lord shook his head with a sheepish smile, Naruto's sapphire, sapphire eyes grew wide. "What? No ramen? Ever? How old are you, thirty? (Had Sakura been drinking anything, she would have immediately spat out whatever was in her mouth and gone into a hysterical fit of laughter) Stop looking at the menu, Jun-san! We need to get you some ramen – stat!"

Naruto ended up ordering for everyone, since he was to pick Jun's ramen and since Sasuke refused to order anything at all. He grinned when Sakura smiled at him for ordering for her, but frowned when he stared back at Sasuke – back at those blank black eyes.

"So Sasuke," he said, leaning forward in attempt to lighten up the situation. "What're you thinking about?"

* * *

_"Time to eat."_

_ Never were there words dreaded more than those._

_ There were two methods of feeding him. Sometimes, when he was delirious enough to attempt to entertain himself, he would try and guess which method they would use on him. Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock, and the ANBU would appear with three bowls and one spoon. He called it method number one: overfeeding._

_ Straddled were his hips, pried was his mouth. Spoonful after spoonful of cold rice forced its way past his teeth before his nose was held to force him to swallow. Sometimes, he would choke. Always, he would vomit. They would feed him several bowls of rice or porridge or whatever they had at the time until it leaked from his mouth and his stomach threatened to burst._

_ He would always vomit after those feeding sessions. The food gagged him, and the dizziness he received would put him to sleep, but he would soon be awakened by the ANBU once more. It was killing him. He grew frustrated._

_ So frustrated, his adrenaline spiked. Wanting so badly – so _badly_ – to just sleep off everything, he went insane when he had been awoken by yet another bucket of icy water. He stood up and thrashed his body, tackling the ANBU that had done it and taking him by surprise, launching his bony fists into that porcelain mask, watching the blood flow from behind it until he was launched across the room and beaten into unconsciousness._

_ At least he was finally asleep._

_

* * *

_"Girls, right?" Naruto continued. "Sakura-chan, right? Or how sexy I looked before Kakashi made you blind?"

Sasuke remained in his silence, and Naruto grew disheartened.

"Fine," he said, but more to himself than as a teasing remark. "I'll just have to shove the food down your mouth myself."

When the food arrived, Sasuke groped for his chopsticks and began attempting to eat.

Naruto's eyebrows shot up into his hairline, exchanging surprised glances with Sakura before turning back to the Uchiha.

"I guess you'd rather eat yourself than be forced to eat, huh, Sasuke?" he said.

Sakura swore she heard the faintest of grunts from the black-haired boy's throat.

Dinner was over. With their bellies relatively filled, they stood up to leave. Naruto waited until they were outside to tell Jun and Sakura that he wanted to speak to Sasuke alone.

"Why don't you bring Jun home, Sakura? I'm just going to take Sasuke for a little walk."

He did not miss her stiffened shoulders, but it was Sasuke's cold fingers on his arm that made him realize the extent of the tension that followed his words. Somewhat confused, but understanding nonetheless, he took back his words and accompanied the two, with Sasuke, on the walk back to the hotel.

When the sign of the hotel was visible in the distance, Naruto was suddenly grateful he had not taken Sasuke on that walk. He had had full intention of giving the boy a talk – a rather angry talk, trying to knock some sense, _any_ sense into that thick Uchiha skull of his. But he stopped to think maybe that was one of the reasons why Sasuke didn't listen to them in the first place.

Naruto did not like being told over and over again what he should and shouldn't do. Maybe he could relate to Sasuke. Maybe they had pushed the Uchiha one too many times so that, instead of being pushed in the right direction, he simply stumbled and fell forward. He stopped Sasuke just before they entered.

"Sasuke," he said simply. "Sasuke," he repeated, having hesitated with his sentence the first time and wanting to get a new start on the second. "You're a good guy. Take care of yourself better."

And those simply words, those nine words sent Sasuke's mind into frenzy.

"Naruto," he whispered back harshly, slowly so the blond could see his lips move. _I tried to hurt you. I tried to kill you. Shut the hell up. Stop talking to me. Stop caring about me. Just shut the hell up._ But he didn't say anything else. He simply turned around with a plan.

"You are not joining us upstairs, Naruto?" Jun asked with sincere curiosity when Naruto did not pass through the front door.

"Nah, I'm going to take a walk," came the reply with an attached smile. "Clear my mind about some things."

"Be careful out there."

The blond watched three heads disappear up the stairs, one black, one pink, and one brown, bobbing in the light before vanishing in the darkness. He turned around on the heels of his feet and craned his neck to the side where he had seen Kakashi's figure earlier, lurking somewhere behind the bushes.

"Tell me you're not out being pedophilic, Kakashi-sensei."

"Oh!"

A head of silver suddenly appeared, followed by a swaggering body and a hand holding a rather famous book in its grasp.

"Caught me, did you, Naruto?"

Naruto grinned, but he had not seen Kakashi's lips move in the dark beneath his mask. "What were you doing in the bushes?" His grin disappeared and his eyes suddenly squinted at the man's uniform. Its front was completely covered in what appeared to be mud, splattered over him in bursts, soaking him to his knees. "Why are you all dirty?"

"Well," Kakashi began with a nonchalant wave of the hand with the book, "I was wrestling this tiger, you see, when it suddenly threw me so far that I landed in the bushes . . ." He trailed off, seeing Naruto's raised eyebrow and blank look, and he smiled. "I just stepped out for a quick walk, and I finally found what I had been looking for."

"I can't even see if you're talking to me, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto replied with a sigh. "You're just going to have to tell Sakura so she can tell me."

"Then we should get upstairs so I can clean up." He ruffled Naruto's golden locks with his free hand, but the blond quickly stepped out from under his arm.

"Don't touch me, pervert!" he exclaimed. "I don't know what you've been doing in the bushes! I don't know where that hand has been!"

Kakashi simply laughed.

He pocketed his book in his back pocket that had miraculously escaped the clay; it had not been mud, like Naruto suspected, but rather wet clay that had exploded all over his front side. With an odd twinkle in his gray eye, he followed Naruto to the room he shared with Sasuke and Sakura and leaned against the doorway.

"Sakura," he spoke loudly, watching Sasuke in the corner as well. "Could you do me a favor and watch over Jun so I can speak to the boys?"

Sakura's hands suddenly dropped the book she was reading. Her fingers quickly scrambled to reach for it again as she turned her head to answer Kakashi, but the silver-haired man put a hand to his chin in contemplation.

"On second thought, never mind. I'm going to go wash up."

And he left.

* * *

That night, Sakura awoke to the sound of the sliding of their door. She opened her eyes to squint through the darkness.

Sasuke was leaving in the middle of the night.

Again.

This time, however, Sakura said nothing. This time, she mustered up all of her will power that told her to stay, that told her to not follow him, to not make sure he wasn't leaving for good. She rolled over and forced her eyes closed.

This time, she would almost – _almost_ – trust the Uchiha to come back.

* * *

"Sakura~."

Grumble. Mumble.

"Sakura~. Come _on_, Kakashi-sensei won't let me do anything to him because he says I'll only end up killing him and he told me not to wake you but it looks really bad and he's kind of being as stubborn as Sasuke, who, by the way, have you seen because he isn't in his room or downstairs but all of his stuff is here and –?"

Sakura shot up in bed, eyes wide.

_"Wait, what?"_

Naruto scrunched his face in mock disgust. "Morning breath."

_"What's wrong with Kakashi-sensei? And where's Sas –?"_

Gentle hands on her shoulders eased her back, silently telling her to calm down. "Slow down, Sakura," he said quietly. "I can't read your lips."

_"Sasuke?"_ she questioned first.

"I haven't seen him all morning. He might've just gone out for a walk or something. I hear they're popular nowadays." He grinned.

Her slightly hammering heart did not find it funny. _". . . You don't think he's . . .?" _

"Left us again?"

She was surprised at the bout of sweet laughter that bubbled from his throat.

"Sakura," he told her slowly, "trust me. Sasuke's not about to leave us any time soon."

He knew something she didn't, and it almost saddened her that she had been left out from the inside knowledge, but she turned her concern to something else.

_"Kakashi-sensei?"_

Naruto finally frowned, his eyebrows drawn together. "He has this injury on his chest. I don't think he even knew it was there, but it got bad overnight, and it's too bad for him to handle, so I was hoping you could . . .?"

She smiled. _"Roger that."_

Naruto's explanation, she came to realize, had only put a playful, not-so-serious image of Kakashi's injury. She walked into Kakashi's room to find him on his back on his bed, staring idly at the ceiling with one hand loosely around his stomach.

"Why hello there, Sakura," he said causally. "I see you're awake."

"_Naruto told me about the wound, Kakashi-sensei. Let me see it."_

But his visible eye was still on the ceiling and so he did not see her moving lips. She walked over to him, noticing the bulge beneath his shirt that she suspected was a towel. She poked him roughly to get his attention. The pained hiss, the jerk forward, and the subtle sound of a suppressed dry retch had Sakura reeling back in surprise.

She whirled around to Naruto, her eyes clearly asking him what had happened, but he shrugged helplessly. She was forced to confront the last person she ever wanted to speak to again: Jun.

"_What happened?"_

But he did not meet her face to see her lips. Only when she jerked on his arm did he finally set his hazel eyes upon her nose (not directly into her eyes), and then to her moving lips.

"I do not know," was all he could tell her.

Kakashi was back on his back, back to staring at the ceiling with one hand lazily across his chest. "Well, I suppose now that you're awake, would you mind helping me a bit?" His lips twitched into an ironic smile. He tried to move his arm to no avail.

Sakura reached out to pull his dark shirt gingerly from his chest, revealing a blood-soaked towel. Kakashi hissed when she pulled it off to reveal the gruesome wound beneath. She began barking orders as she traced the wound with her bare fingers.

_"Naruto, I need fresh towels and my medical kit. It's next to my bag. Make sure there's alcohol in there. Jun. . .-san,"_ she faltered, _"I need a basin of warm water."_

Her skilled eyes began to take in the wound for proper diagnosis. It looked like the flesh on Kakashi's torso had been eaten away, as if someone had poured battery acid slowly but surely onto his skin. Bruises marred the outside of the wound. It was the inside she was worried about.

When she turned around to ask Naruto for the medical kit, she realized the blond and the Feudal Lord had never moved from their spots. Had never received their directions.

_("You always have to get peoples' attention, and you've got to stop assuming that they're always listening to you, you know?")_

Naruto's voice rang clearly in her head as she sighed, closing her eyes purely out of the frustration that bubbled into her stomach. With strained patience, she repeated her orders again and watched each man leave the room.

Kakashi smiled slightly despite the pain. "See?" he managed. "Your worst disability doesn't hinder you _that_ much."

She shot him a look that could wither the Amazon Rainforest.

_"What happened?"_ she asked him as she prodded at the bruises around the corroded flesh.

Kakashi frowned. "I'm not quite sure. I was out last night taking care of a trap the enemy had set around our hotel – now, don't be alarmed," he added at the raising of her eyebrows. "The enemy is long gone. The trap disintegrated and the mud from it landed on me. I was perfectly fine last night, so I'm guessing that mud had something special in it."

_"You're a horrible liar, Kakashi,"_ Sakura deadpanned.

"I'm not lying!"

The twinkle in his gray, gray eye told her otherwise, but she let her hands roam over his flesh slowly, weaving back the tissues until Naruto came back with her medical kit and towels, and Jun came back with the basin of water. She soaked a towel in the water to wipe the river of blood from Kakashi's abdomen before opening her medical kit quickly and swiping an alcoholic rub from it.

_"Hold his shoulders down, Naruto,"_ she told the blond when she was sure she had his attention, and in one quick movement, she swiped the alcoholic rub across the diagonal of Kakashi's wound.

The man gave a howling yelp of agony, trying his best to jerk forward in Naruto's grasp. His throat struggled to keep the bile down, tears of pain forming at his tightly pressed eyes.

_"Sorry, Kakashi-sensei."_

Whatever was eating away at his flesh was surely dead by then.

She worked quickly, pumping chakra into the wound as Kakashi lay limply on the bed from the exhaustion of pain. Cells regenerated, tissues weaved together, muscles repaired and skin turning flawless once again in a matter of minutes to reveal Kakashi's abdomen.

Sakura wiped her bloodied hands on a fresh towel, admiring her handiwork.

_"Just a bit of bruising left,"_ she told him when her eyes were on her lips. _"I've killed any harmful organisms. How are you feeling?"_

Kakashi tried to sit up with help from Naruto, his stomach screaming at him for moving.

"Peachy."

"We're down in strength by two men, Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto. "Sasuke's pretty weak, and you need to recover. I'm thinking we should stay another day –"

"Just another hour, Naruto," the man said to him, but the blond was oblivious to his words. Sakura had to translate.

Sakura felt it her need to interject. _"Kakashi-sensei, from what you told me, we're bound to have another attack by the enemy the second we leave this village. You're really in no shape to go out on a mission. Don't you think that's what the enemy wants? Sasuke's not threat, and now you're no threat. We're down to two viable threats on our team. At this rate, Jun. . .-san,"_ she faltered again with the suffix, "_Jun-san will be vulnerable."_

"I just need an hour, Sakura," he told her with a smile. "I promise."

She smiled, too. _"Okay, fine. Let me just put on a few more finishing touches to those bruises, and I'll give you something to help with your healing."_

She helped him ease into a comfortable position on the bed, prodded his bruises a few more times, and filled a cup of water for him to drink, to which she left the room for since he would not dare remove his mask in front of her.

And in a few short minutes, he was out like a sodden fuse.

"You gave him something, didn't you?" Naruto said with a knowing grin.

Sakura replied with a cheeky grin. _"I dissolved a sleeping pill in his water. He'll be out for a bit."_

"He might be a little angry when he wakes up."

_"He watches out for us all the time, Naruto."_ She began to pick up the dirtied towels, to put away the contents of her medical kit. _"I want him to know that we're watching out for him just as much. Where's Sasuke?"_

"Taking a shower, apparently. I walked into the room to grab your kit and he was already in there."

_"We've got a few hours of extra time. Do you need anything?"_

"I'm all right."

Naruto turned to Jun, who had been standing silently behind them, reading from a book that had once been on his nightstand. The Feudal Lord looked up at the sense of being watched and smiled slightly at Naruto.

"Are you okay with staying for a little while longer, Jun-san?" asked the blond. "Kakashi-sensei's going to be out for a bit."

"I understand completely." Smile, smile. "I'll get a bit of sleep myself."

"Go right ahead. We'll wake you up when we're ready to leave."

He bowed to the Feudal Lord ever-so-slightly and grabbed hold of Sakura's wrist, pulling her out gently and closing the door behind him. When they were safe in the vicinity of their own room, he looked her straight in the eyes. Sapphire met emerald.

"Sakura," he told her. "I don't like him."

* * *

Sasuke stood there, letting the water cascade down his body with the dirt to gather beneath his feet in a whirlpool of water. He had been out training himself clumsily, walking (and stumbling) through the streets of the village and attempting to use his other sense to help him around. Strength was, like it had been long ago, the only thing on his mind.

If he was stronger, no one would notice him. Naruto paid far too much attention to him when he was weak. Far too much. If he was stronger, maybe his ties with everyone else would loosen. Maybe he wouldn't be so bound to Konoha.

He found himself working with a lot of maybes as motivation, but he did not care. Uchiha Sasuke was not going to wallow around in his own depression for the world to baby him. He was Uchiha _fucking_ Sasuke! Killer of Orochimaru. Traitor of Konoha. Soon-to-be Sole Wielder of the Sharingan. Not some beaten rag doll that couldn't get its limbs together. He almost felt disgusted at himself for falling into that bout of helplessness.

Uchiha.

Helpless.

He snorted.

He did not see Sakura and Naruto when he stepped out of the shower, but he could sense them. Walking outside that day had allowed him to do that. He stepped around them, but felt a hand grab onto his bare arm.

"I know, Sasuke," he heard Naruto tell him.

"Know what?"

"About Jun."

* * *

The first thing that came to Kakashi's mind when he woke up was that the ceiling was an odd, unnatural shade of gray. He blinked blearily, trying to remove any traces of sleep from his own gray possessions. The second thing that came to Kakashi's mind when he woke up was the odd aftertaste in his mouth, and he knew from the way the sun was no longer rising but was high in the air that he had been asleep for quite some time.

Sakura.

_That girl . . ._

Pain throbbed dully in his chest as he tried to sit up, in sync to the equally dull beat of his thudding heart. A pair of hazel eyes watched him stand, following him as he removed his torn and bloodied shirt (Sakura had torn it for him to remove the part that had covered his abdomen) and wore a new one, as he shuffled back and forth throughout the room to gather his belongings, and as he stood right before his feet.

"Jun-san," he spoke, a smile curving his eyes. "I apologize for the unplanned nap. Would you be ready to go in a matter of minutes?"

"It is no problem at all."

Their eyes met, and Kakashi was the one to break the contact.

"If you would just get your things together, I'm going to go gather my teammates."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were talking to each other – _talking to each other_ – in a way that made Kakashi close his eyes, rub them, and open them again to make sure Sakura had not given him something other than a sleeping pill. The three were sitting in a triangle on the floor; when one would speak, another would translate for the person with the respective hindering disability. Kakashi was unsure of what they were speaking of, and he would never know because the second he stepped into the room, the three of them silenced and turned to look at him (or stare in his direction).

"There's a change in our plans," he began, resisting the urge to raise his eyebrow at the antics of his students. "Because we're behind by a few hours," at this, he stared pointedly at Sakura, but with humor rather than anger, "and because we're about to be in the worst danger we've ever been in, we won't be stopping at the next checkpoint. We're going to continue all the way until we get to Konoha."

"Danger?" Sasuke tilted his head to the side.

"Danger. This is going to be one of the last chances the enemy has to attack us for a long time. They already know we're here."

He stared at the three of them – at his _team_. Team 7. They were Team 7 again. Almost.

At the beginning of the mission, Sakura was too proud to look Sasuke in the eye. Too proud to notice his existence. Too bent on trying to punish the Uchiha for what he'd done. Now, she sat directly next to him, his palm in her hand so that she could write on his skin.

At the beginning of the mission, Naruto was a broken wreck trying to bridge his friends back together again. Torn between Sakura and Sasuke, with no time for himself. Now, his bridging and his perseverance, his determination, his pure will sat around him in the form of a fixed friendship.

At the beginning of the mission, Sasuke had been set on being independent. Had pushed Naruto away and had been so angry at Sakura that he had been ready to hit her – twice. Had cursed his way through every mission. Now, he sat in content silence, no longer in the awkward tension, no longer in his little corner of darkness.

It took a month of blood, of sweat, of tears, of curses, of arguments, of torment, of shame, of betrayal, of deceit. A slow, slow month. But they had almost done it. They were a loose shadow of what Team 7 had once been. It might take many months more to fill in the shadow, but at least they were a thousand steps further than they had once been.

Kakashi's only regret was that his team had mended without him. That he had been left out of most of the bonding, of most of the arguments, of most of the repairs. His satisfaction was still fulfilled out of watching his students grow, but they grew without their teacher, and he wondered what his place was.

He really should tell them about Jun.

* * *

**Me Again: What? What's this? OOC? ANBU would never do that? GTFO the internet, R.G. Waffles because this story is turning into a bunch of unrealistic, dramatic crap? Why was Kakashi randomly injured? You just want to injure everyone?**

Hi guys. Sasuke was a missing-nin who was going to get the death penalty. Kakashi's injury requires thinking and putting clues together, but it's okay, because everything is going to be revealed in the next chapter. If I get any ignorant reviews telling me about things I've addressed in my author's notes, I shall kindly redirect you to my author's notes.**  
**


	12. Luminous

**Author's Note:** SATs. Camping trip as an IB CAS retreat. And now here I am, with an update.

There's nothing much to say, except that I think I'm nearing the end of my story somewhat. I have a lot to figure out, and it'll be figured out as long as you guys keep reading. Thank you!

And enjoy.

**Chapter Twelve**  
…**:::Luminous:::…**

_Step . . . step . . . step . . . step . . ._

Stare.

Coast clear.

_Step . . . step . . . step . . . step . . ._

Stare.

Coast clear.

_Step . . . step . . . – _"Ah, screw this."

_ Step step step step step step step step –_

"We've found him!"

Puffs of smoke suddenly erupted all around Naruto as his shadow clones disappeared one by one, and he knew he had been found. He had been trying to tiptoe his way through the trees with his army of shadow clones to ambush the enemy that had attacked his team minutes after they had left the village. Whispering the incantation and watching the clones pop into existence had been hard enough on his stealth. It was the actual moving through the forest, step by step, that had apparently given away his position.

Stupid stealth.

And so came the waves of water that chased him through the trees like a tsunami. He ran, stealth be damned.

The enemy had been ruthless in their attack. One second, the team was walking through the snow-covered forest, and the next thing they knew, it was raining water and ninja. Minutes into their ambush, Naruto had been chased away from the team by three males and their blasts of water techniques that turned the ground to ice.

_SMACK!_

A wall of water crashed against Naruto's body and he was sent hurtling into the distance to crash into the trunk of a tree. One of the ninja materialized in front of him, his lips moving beneath a mask much like Kakashi's, but Naruto could not hear what he was saying.

"I have nothing you want," he said, hoping it answered the man's words.

_SLAP!_

Apparently, that was not the answer he had been looking for.

"Give . . . man . . ." Naruto managed to decipher from the wrinkle of the cloth, and he suddenly knew. They wanted the Feudal Lord. While he was more than willing to give the man to them, he had a mission to finish, and so his lips turned into a very Sasuke-like smirk.

"Over my wooden body," he said, and blinked out of existence, leaving a log in his place.

Kakashi would be proud.

Kakashi had contemplated one-on-one meetings with his students, like he had done all the way at the beginning of the mission. But they had been so long ago, and everyone had changed so much, that he figured the one-on-one meetings would only hinder their mission at that point.

When the enemy attacked, it only strengthened his confidence in his decision not to have one-on-ones. It was a strange enemy, one that deserved careful attention. They attacked with techniques based solely on the water element, which Kakashi found odd. Their normal enemies used a mix of elements. Their tactics had also changed from attacking Sasuke or Kakashi to attempting to attack Jun directly.

Kakashi was still sore, but he would not let the dull throb of his chest prevent him from grabbing Jun by his waist and hoisting him up unceremoniously over his shoulder.

"My apologies, Jun-san," he said quickly as he ran, Jun bouncing on his shoulders. "But this enemy is much different."

"Do what you must. I trust you with my life," the bouncing man replied, and for the first time, Kakashi heard the fear in his voice.

He suddenly understood.

Sasuke found himself in a position he never thought he would be in again since he left:

He was fighting alongside Sakura.

It was more like she was helping him along, but he, with his sword wielded in front of him, would never admit that. He hadn't put himself in the situation on purpose; there was an ambush, the team had split, and he had simply stayed where he was because of his disability. Sakura had coincidentally been opted to stay as well, leaving the two of them surrounded by seven – _CRRRACK!_ Sakura had sent someone flying into a tree – six ninja.

And an inability to communicate.

Splendid.

He was suddenly knocked from behind and by the force of it, it was not an accidental push from Sakura. It was the enemy, wrestling him to the floor brusquely. Snow burrowed between his choppy strands of hair and began to seep through his cloak as he struggled with the woman – definitely a woman – on top of him. He wanted to stab her, but not _kill_ her, so the sword was suspended loosely in his hand for a while until he felt the side of her waist and launched his sword into her body just above what he hoped was her abdomen.

Seconds later, her body went limp, and he stood up –

- Only to be hit by a wave of water.

Being blind was not amusing the spluttering Uchiha.

Sakura had seen the wave of water and had opened her mouth to warn the Uchiha, but her disability forced her to stand by and hope Sasuke would be able to dodge it. Her hopes were shattered when she saw the boy swept away by the wave of water and disappear from sight.

"The man."

She turned around with her arms up in defense, but they could not stop the blade that launched itself into her gut. Her body doubled over, her emerald eyes wide and surprised, blood threatening to bubble up in her throat and past her lips. She saw the ninja's hands come up to his chest to form seals as her own body was falling slowly to the snow that was becoming stained with her blood. Saw his hand hover over her head, knew what he was going to do, heard the whispered chant that threatened to encase her in a water prison like the one Kakashi had been encased in on their first mission.

And she could not let that happen.

She rolled to the side, the short blade still sticking out of her gut and blood flowing sickly from the corners of her mouth, but the ninja simply followed with an amused grin on his face. The water began to materialize from his hand and formed the top of the circular prison.

In one swift movement, Sakura pulled the blade from her stomach and thrust her arm out just as the prison was forming to slice the man's hand off.

The water was suspended in air for a moment before it fell to the ground, formless. A scream of agony and anger tore through the forest as Sakura scrambled to stand again, one hand trying her best to pump chakra into her bleeding wound as the other still wielded the blade. She caught sight of Sasuke, his body soaked in the cold weather as he fought blindly with a woman, sword against sword. The Uchiha plunged his blade quickly into her leg to send her toppling from the tops of the trees and turned his head, trying to sense anything.

She needed to grab his attention. Bending down painfully, she picked up a small rock to throw at his chest. He felt it and turned his head sharply in the direction.

"Sakura?" he asked, his nose smelling something rather distinct. Of course she would not reply, he thought. He jumped from his tree, a cut on his back smarting sharply, and put one hand out in front of him as he walked around. Sakura's free hand caught his arm.

"Let's go?" he offered, and felt her tug on his arm so they would begin to move.

The entire team was reunited when the enemy count went down. Kakashi had managed to capture one of them, holding her prisoner against a tree as he waited for Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to return. He had thought the enemy to be strange once their tactics had been new to him, and so he had investigated the matter. It turned out that they were not the enemy they had been followed by the entire time – they were ninja of Amegakure.

"What does Amegakure want with the Feudal Lord?" he asked the limp woman he held against the tree, his Sharingan swirling.

She stared him hard in the eyes, her determination making her silent. But his thumb dug into her throat menacingly. She opened her mouth to gasp for air, drool dribbling down her chin from the corner of her mouth. Kakashi held tight to her throat and waited, but she refused to respond. He had been about to put her down when she suddenly brought her hand up to her neck and thrust something into its side.

A needle.

"Damn it," Kakashi cursed, knowing she had poisoned herself. It would only be a matter of minutes before the poison was coursing painfully through her body, all possible information lost with it. He reached into his pocket for a kunai. The poison would be painful. Even though she was an enemy, he would put her out of her misery.

"Did you kill her?"

Sasuke's voice came from behind him and he turned around, dropping his bloodied kunai beside the body of the woman. He was staring at his neck, head titled slightly as if he was sniffing the air.

"She poisoned herself." Kakashi's eye trailed to where Sakura was bent over, her hand over her abdomen. He recognized the green glow. "What happened?"

"What do you mean what happened?"

"No, no, not you. Sakura. She's injured."

_"I'm fine, Kakashi-sensei."_

"Here, sit down. We have to wait for Naruto anyway."

She didn't object to the hands on her shoulder that led her to the trunk of a tree and eased her gently against it. Her hand was still over her abdomen, still trying to fix the broken tissues inside before she could stem the blood flow.

When she saw that he was still staring at her, she smirked and said, _"Tried to put me in a water prison."_ Her chest heaved with the strain it took to breathe deeply. _"Cut off his hand."_

Although he was worried, Sakura could still see the proud smirk beneath Kakashi's mask. "You should've asked him for a high five. But don't talk now. That's a pretty deep cut."

Sasuke's brow was furrowed. He didn't know Sakura had been injured. One of his arms moved to gingerly touch the shallow wound on his back, wincing when it stung slightly. Nothing a swipe of alcohol and a few bandages couldn't fix. Sakura did not have to heal him; he could hear the quickness of her breath and decided she needed the energy.

"Sasuke, come here. You're shivering like crazy."

The Uchiha suddenly felt something heavy land on his shoulders, equally heavy hands keeping the object in place around him. He pulled the blanket closer around his body and removed the soaking cloak he had on beneath it.

Naruto came staggering to their location not seconds later, his teeth chattering loudly and his body drenched from the strands of his golden hair to his heels. Sapphire eyes went from Sakura healing herself on the floor, to Jun looking fearful a little to the right, Sasuke shivering beneath a blanket pulled tightly around him, and a very tired looking sensei.

"Good," he said, collapsing against a tree and holding his bruised side. "So I'm not the only one who's been having a bad day."

_ Ten more hours. Ten more hours. Ten more hours._

The mantra danced eerily in Kakashi's head as they walked on. Just ten more hours until they would make it to Konoha. Ten more hours until they walked up to Tsunade's room. Ten more hours until they introduced Jun. Ten more hours until he could just collapse in bed and sleep everything off.

But he was not sure his team could take ten more hours. He needed to get them as quickly as possible to Konoha, but the recent battle left Sakura with little chakra, her eyes drooping as she walked. She had even staggered once into Naruto, and the blond had pleaded to have her picked up or to stop, but to which Sakura's pride forced her to refuse. Sasuke and Naruto were both shivering having both been swept away by the water-oriented jutsus of the Amegakure ninja.

Naruto had taken to trying to cheer the team up again, his smile plastered on his face despite the chattering of his teeth.

"A-and we'll all go have ramen," he was saying as he walked, eyes staring forward. "Kakashi-s-sensei will pay of course, right Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi waved him off.

"He always says yes anyway, right, Sakura?"

He wished he heard the giggle he saw come from her smiling lips.

"And we'll have a party! Yeah! As c-c-celebration! Everyone's invited!"

"Stop."

Sasuke's voice was but a low intonation, eyes still staring ahead. The entire team stopped (save for Naruto, who continued walking into Kakashi's unmoving back). His head snapped to the right suddenly, eyes flickering instinctively with his useless Sharingan.

And suddenly, they were engaged in battle.

Again. They were growing tired of ambushes. The enemy came at once – all ten of them.

_Ten more hours. Ten more hours,_ Kakashi kept counting, gritting his teeth in preparation.

They split into five groups of two, each group aiming for a different member of the team. Kakashi was forced to take on four: two for him, and two for Jun. Naruto was doing his best to take on four as well, hoping to save Sakura from putting any more energy into battling, but the enemy was ruthless. They sent attack after attack, jutsu after jutsu, as they aimed directly for Jun.

Naruto gasped for breath as he leaped from branch to branch, unable to detect the roar of the jutsus or the hiss of a kunai sailing through the air until they whizzed past him or hit him with full force. He ended up flipping through the air from a gust of wind and narrowly avoiding the punch from a ninja that followed.

Sasuke could not breathe.

He had been crouched on a branch, eyes closed instinctively in an attempt to heighten the rest of his senses, but he only grew frustrated. He wanted the swirl of his Sharingan to detect the jutsus, not the twitch of his ears. He wanted to see the chakra flow with the simple blink of an eye, not muster up his energy to detect it from scratch. The feeling of vulnerability disgusted him.

His body tensed abruptly with the feeling of an oncoming presence, but his senses had yet to tell him from which direction it was coming from. He was forced to stand, hands out in front of him, knees bent, and ears desperately trying to hear the snap of a twig or the fall of a footprint.

Nothing.

Except that suddenly, he could not breathe.

"Blind," someone intoned from behind him. "Fucking crazy team we have after us."

He clawed at his neck, at the thick arm that wrapped itself so tightly beneath his chin and to the chest of his attacker. The sword in his hand was wrenched away, and someone was suddenly opening his jaw forcefully with gloved fingers.

_Let go let go let go let go let go let go let go let go!_

His heart raced and he tried to throw his blanket up over the face of his captor, but there was a third (third? fourth? second? Sasuke no longer knew) person keeping his hands from moving and avoiding his kicking legs.

_Concentrate_, he tried to tell himself, tried to muster up his chakra so that he could unleash his hidden jutsu. A thousand birds echoed ominously in the silence of the forest. Chakra suddenly sparked from his entire body like lightning. Flashes of blue reflected in the eyes of his captors and all but one let go.

"Fool!" the only one holding onto him laughed. He was the one holding his hands, and Sasuke suddenly felt fatigued. The chirping began to die down, its power fading as Sasuke's chakra faded.

"Chakra sucker," the Uchiha whispered faintly. He gritted his teeth as he struggled to move, but a new hand grabbed his hair violently and tugged his head back.

"We were warned about your little full body chakra attacks."

Another set of hands (_Didn't I just take out two people?)_ was at his jaw again, trying to force it open and take advantage of the fact that his struggles were no longer as violent because of the chakra-absorbing hands on his arms. Something was pushed viciously into his mouth and past his tongue – a pill. Two pills. The hands that had been trying to open his jaw simply clamped his mouth shut and the person pulling on his hair clogged his nose.

"Swallow it!"

Sasuke tried to spit the pills out, tried to struggle from their grips, tried to take his chakra back and blast it through his body's cells. Tried to keep from passing out. His head was beginning to spin, but he would gladly pass out from lack of oxygen than swallow whatever they had put in his mouth.

His body, however, complied with the natural order of his internal system and he found his throat swallowing the pills dry. The hands over his nose and mouth released him and he gasped for one long breath of air. The other hands released him as well. Down went his body, falling down, down from the branch above to land in the soft snow below, his mind panicking over what they had just given him.

Hands were on him again. Pulling him. Jerking him aside. Picking him up. Dropping him back down. There was a struggle over his body and he was unsure just who it was who was struggling over him. Someone was dragging him through the snow and he thrashed viciously with what little chakra he had left.

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, Sasuke."

Kakashi.

Sasuke sighed in relief and allowed the man to pull him up. He swayed, his mind still worrying over the pills they had given him. The fight around him began to die down and soon, silence reigned once more. He was still swaying when Naruto shouted his name.

"Sakura's asking what they did to you," he said urgently.

Sasuke dropped to his knees.

"Sasuke! What did they do?"

"Pills," he gasped out, his stomach suddenly flipping in on itself. He doubled over, pain lacing his nerves. Someone grabbed at his shoulders and pushed him forward even further. Before he could object, a gloved finger was shoved down his throat. His gag reflexes forced him forward in a series of retches.

_Nine more hours. Nine more hours. Nine more hours._

Kakashi watched Sakura check over Sasuke after having made him forcefully vomit the pills. A lot could happen in nine hours. He turned to stare at Jun. The fear from the man's eyes had disappeared and he sported a small cut on his upper arm where a shuriken had barely grazed him.

_Nine more hours._

_Six more hours._

Sakura had been unable to deduce the purpose of the pills. They had been unfamiliar to her, she said as she checked over their effects in Sasuke's bloodstream. Kakashi had moved them away from their battle ground and made an impromptu camp.

"Will we not be in danger?" Jun asked innocently, hands held gratefully against the fire.

"I would pick danger any day over the death of one of my teammates."

Kakashi helped patch up his teammates rather than allow Sakura to waste any more of her energy. He iced Naruto's swollen ankle the blond had obtained from a particularly brutal twist, bandaged the scratches on Sasuke's chest, and passed around food to rejuvenate the fallen.

Now, with six hours left, they were trekking slowly through the snowy grounds. No enemies, no words exchanged, and no tolerance for the mission anymore.

Five hours, and they were still walking. Sakura had begun to stumble every several meters.

Four hours, and Kakashi was trying to pick up the pace. Naruto had begun to shake violently.

Three hours, and their walking had turned laborious. Sasuke tripped and fell.

Two hours, no sign of enemies.

One hour, Naruto's heart began to race. They were almost there. _Almost there._

When the gates of Konoha were visible ahead of them, Sakura thought she could cry. It had been a month. The longest month of her life, but the most meaningful. She had battled like never before, had shed tears like never before, had healed and laughed and vented like never before, and it was all over. They were back in Konoha.

They were home.

Naruto could not suppress the loud yelp of joy that overcame him as he hobbled to the front gates and pumped one fist into the air.

"Home sweet h-home!" he shouted so loudly that Izumo and Kotetsu, the gatekeepers, were aroused from their light naps. They stuck their heads from their posts and grinned manically in unison.

"Oi, oi, Uzumaki!" cried Kotetsu. "You're alive!"

"Great, now I owe him money," Izumo continued jokingly.

They squinted at the figures coming behind Naruto and stood alert, bowing deeply as Kakashi came into view with the Feudal Lord.

"Yo."

Kakashi smiled with a simple wave of his hand, standing to the side to allow Jun to stand next to him.

"Has Tsunade-sama been informed of our arrival?" he asked. He did not miss the wary glance Kotetsu was sending Sasuke.

"She's waiting for you right now. Don't let us stop you from resting from your long journey, Hatake."

"Right then." He winked at the gatekeepers. "Don't do anything dirty, you two."

The men became flustered, each of them looking at the other and then looking back at Hatake, attempting to insult the "pervy old man!" and justify their actions, but Kakashi did not hear them. He beckoned Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke forward as he led Jun to the Hokage's Palace.

Naruto took a deep, quivering breath. "It feels so good to be back."

Sasuke thought otherwise.

The path they took to the palace was indirect, away from the hustle and bustle of the main streets of Konoha that were abundant with the villagers at that time of day. Jun smiled politely.

"Your village is very beautiful," he remarked quietly.

Sasuke snorted. Sakura remembered the time when Jun would compare anything beautiful to her, and she shivered involuntarily in disgust.

ANBU greeted them at the bottom of the stairs of the palace, escorting them up the few flights where Shizune welcomed them warmly.

"I'm sure a trip to the hospital would be a good thing after this meeting," she said, staring at the tatters of Team 7. "Tsunade-sama will surely ask you all for a detailed mission report, which will most likely be rather tiring."

The ANBU remained with them as Shizune led them to Tsunade's door. With one sweep of her hand, the door opened. Kakashi braced himself. Standing in the room were a dozen Root ANBU members, Sai in the midst of them, with Tsunade in the lead.

"Watanabe Jun," she said, her hazel eyes piercing. "You are under arrest."

"Arrest?" The word spilled from Sasuke's mouth, his mind trying to work out what was going on. No one seemed to have heard him.

"Murder," Tsunade went on. "Attempted murder. Attempted abduction of Uchiha Sasuke. Illegal experimentation. And most of all, planned infiltration of our village."

"Tsunade-sama," Jun whispered, eyes wide, "I have no idea what you are speaking of –"

"Cut the bullshit, Watanabe. Danzo has had his squad after you for a very long time. We know of your plans." She turned to nod towards the ANBU around him so they would get the hint: Jun was to be captured and placed in a cellar until the Elders got a hold of him.

Jun smiled darkly. "That would be ill-advised. If you dare touch me, your flower here –" and he suddenly had Sakura directly in front of him, one arm fisted in her hair and the other over her left breast "- will have acid injected into her heart faster than you can blink."

"No one move," Tsunade gritted out. Her eyes made contact with Sakura's emerald orbs. A five minute's conversation was exchanged in a second between them.

Jun began to back out of the room, Sakura still tightly in his grasp. "No one follow me," he told them before he disappeared from view. Naruto rounded on Tsunade, sapphire eyes wide in worry.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed. "Granny, we have to get Sakura!"

"Just wait a few minutes, Uzumaki."

"Granny –"

"Naruto!"

He silenced.

Sakura was growing increasingly uncomfortable at the hand over her left breast and at the fingers pulling on her hair. She was tired. Very tired. She did not go through a month-long mission to have it end like this. Jun jerked her neck back and planted his lips against her exposed skin.

"I must say, your village is rather intelligent," he murmured into her neck. "I was sure I played my role perfectly."

Without her voice, she could not tell him how disgusting he was, how disturbed she thought he was, how he should stop the lips that trailed up and down her neck, over her collarbone, lower, higher, higher, below her eyelashes.

"If you come with me, I would forget all about infiltrating Konoha. I'll even forget about that Uchiha boy."

He tried to put his mouth over hers, but she jerked her head aside violently.

She thought he was insane to even think she would trust him. All of the confusion that rampaged through her head – who was Jun? why did he want to infiltrate Konoha? didn't Tsunade say he was not a ninja? what did he want with Sasuke? – was forced aside as she tried to come up with a clear solution to her problem. Tsunade had let her go off with Jun because she trusted Sakura could take care of it herself.

And Sakura had a plan.

"Now."

Tsunade and the team of Root ANBU followed the racing remnants of Team 7 as they flew from the office and down the steps. They did not have to move far to reach them; on the first floor of the palace, just before the door, Sakura was hunched over, her body shuddering violently from stress and blood spattering past her lips as she coughed. Jun lay on the floor several feet away, spread-eagle and motionless amongst fallen papers and a broken desk.

_"He's not dead,"_ Sakura ground out silently, her face a contortion of absolute fury and pain. _"But I wish he was."_

Tsunade began belting out orders like the Hokage she was. Chaos ensued, and the first floor of the palace became a mess of movement and chatter. "You four are heading to the hospital," she said, indicating a worn and weary Kakashi, a shivering Naruto and an equally shivering Sasuke, and Sakura. "ANBU, take him into custody. Shizune, call the Elders and have them report to my office. I –"

"I'm not going to the hospital until I get an explanation," Sasuke demanded smoothly.

Tsunade set her glaring, honey eyes upon his blind face. "You are in _no_ position to be making demands, Uchiha."

"Apparently, I was a target of that so-called Feudal Lord –"

"Hatake, this is ridiculous, take off your stupid jutsu –"

"What the heck is going on, Granny –?"

"Their week is not up, Tsunade-sama, and quite frankly, I'd like the entire story as well –"

"Everyone needs to go to the hospital _right now_ –"

"Forgive me if I am incorrect, but I have never read that you are to leave an unconscious nemesis on the ground –"

"I need an explanation –!"

"Everyone _shut the hell up!"_

Silence.

Tsunade shot an entire arsenal of sharp weapons with her eyes as she stared around the room. She gave one final barked order at the ANBU to begin removing Jun from her presence before she turned her intimidating stance upon Team 7.

"I am the Hokage, damn it," she growled out in her frustration. She was never good with chaos. "You four are going to be treated at the hospital immediately. I will not have you bleeding and shivering all over my floor. And when you are all resting nicely in your beds, I will have Sai explain everything to you." Her eyes flickered in Kakashi's direction. "Although I believe Hatake over here will be able to fill you in on most of the details since he was the one who sent me the report to arrest Watanabe."

Sasuke turned his head in what he assumed was Kakashi's direction. He narrowed his eyes at the wall (Kakashi's head?). "You _knew?_"

"Right," said Kakashi. "Hospital. Now."

And he forced his students along, not caring about anything at that moment – not about Jun, not about the mission – because they were finally, finally home.

Naruto awoke in the silence.

He was not sore; his tailed beast chakra had taken care of any injuries he had. He was not tired. Light filtered in delicately from the open window by his hospital bed, casting a yellow, angelic glow to the whiteness of the room. His sapphire eyes darted around, gulping in his surroundings because the last thing he remembered was that he had collapsed from fatigue with nurses unzipping his jacket and tearing off his shirt.

There were two other beds in the room. On one of them, Sakura slept soundlessly. Her eyes were closed and a heart monitor was connected to the clip on her finger, beeping steadily - _ beep . . . beep . . . beep . . . _– as she gained the rest she deserved. Naruto stared at her for a while, unable to take his eyes away from what he thought was the most beautiful sight in the world, but there was still one bed to be investigated.

That bed was empty, its sheets tangled messily as if whoever had been in it had gotten up and had not bothered to organize himself. The culprit sat to Naruto's left, eyeing him with an interested glint.

"I see you're awake."

Naruto sighed, eyes narrowing. "Kakashi-sensei, if you're going to start explaining things to me, either take off the mask or give me back my sense of sound!"

Kakashi leaned over and gave him back his sense of sound. He was not going to be fooled that easily. "This is just temporary," he whispered to the blond. "Your week isn't up, but I don't want you shouting things all over the place with Sakura still asleep."

Sapphire eyes skimmed the room again, eyebrows drawing together when they did not find the missing presence.

"Where's Sasuke?"

Kakashi seemed almost amused. "They still do not trust him," he said, and Naruto thought he heard the bitterness in his sensei's voice, but he shook it off as a trick of sound since he had just been granted his hearing. "He's in his own little room on another floor, guarded by ANBU."

"You've got to be kidding me. Have you been up to see him?"

"He's sleeping. They tranquilized him."

_Which is the last thing he needs right now._ Kakashi wished he had been awake when the decision to keep Sasuke in his own room had been made. He would have fought tooth and nail for him.

"So are you going to explain what you know to me? Before Sai comes? I don't think Sakura's going to wake up for a while."

"You deserve as much."

Kakashi settled himself comfortably in his plastic chair, extending his legs out in front of him and crossing them at the ankles.

"So there was this giant white tiger, I kid you not, and it got a hold of my –"

"Kakashi-sensei!"

"Fine, fine."

Kakashi had gotten his rest. The darkness beneath his eyes had faded – it was still there, but not nearly as visible as before. He doubted Naruto knew he had been asleep for several hours.

"I didn't know he was trying to infiltrate Konoha," he began, "But I knew something strange was going on when the enemy had this strange tactic of theirs. They would attack us only when we moved from village to village, and at first, they had taken aim only at me, but did you notice them start to take aim at Sasuke?"

Naruto remembered their odd tactics, and could distinctly remember them aiming at Sasuke the time he was the least threat. He nodded, the pieces beginning to fall into place in the large and complicated puzzle.

"They never aimed directly for Jun because they never really wanted him. Then, when we were attacked by the Amegakure ninja – and I am willing to bet you anything that they attacked us because they wanted to take Jun into custody themselves – Jun looked scared. He had never been scared whenever the real enemy had been attacking, so he had either gotten used to them attacking, or he never had anything to fear."

"Because he was collaborating with them the whole time," continued Naruto.

"Exactly."

"But they attacked him right before we got to Konoha. They attacked everyone evenly."

"He must've told them we were getting suspicious and forced them to change their tactics. They still never attempted to hurt him."

Naruto sat up straighter, eyes growing with excitement. "And just recently, when you had that really weird injury on your chest. That was from acid, wasn't it? Like the first enemy we fought back at their hideout – that guy that used acid?"

Kakashi smirked at Naruto's quickness. "Acid is a pretty unique jutsu. Jun is a ninja, Naruto, contrary to what he wanted us to believe. He needed a way to secretly communicate with his enemy, and I'm pretty sure he took a page out of Sai's book."

"Ink animals?"

"Yes, except he doesn't use ink. He uses clay instead."

Naruto's mind warped back to the time he had found Kakashi lurking in the bushes, dirt staining his entire front. It hadn't been dirt.

"It was clay."

"Jun sent out information about where he was, who was injured at what time, where we would be going next – everything. And that night you saw me with clay all over me, I had intercepted one of his little clay animals, but it exploded before I could extract the information from it."

"And it was rigged," said Naruto, catching on. "With acid particles. And that's how you got the injury."

His eyes widened.

"Damn it, Kakashi-sensei! We were leading the enemy straight to Konoha!" He gritted his teeth, his gaze falling to his clenching hands before he looked back up. "But what did he want with Sasuke? And why didn't Sai tell us he was involved?"

There was silence for a while. Kakashi stretched his arms into the air and placed them behind his head. He tipped his chair back slightly with his uncrossed legs.

"We'll have to wait and find out," he drawled idly. "But I'm guessing Sai did not know his mission involved the Feudal Lord until later on. And what would anyone want with an Uchiha?"

Naruto's teeth only gritted harder.

Sasuke's eyes.

The Uchiha awoke in his own bed, his own room, at just that moment. Sweat covered his body in heavy beads, making the room's heated atmosphere unbearable. He tore the heated blanket from his body and ripped the IV needle painfully from his hand.

_Damn tranquilizer._

"Not so fast."

Sasuke's head snapped up at the all-too familiar sound. He mustered up every bit of will to prevent himself from smashing his fist right into the porcelain of the face that had looked down upon him for three months. Eyes stared mockingly at him from behind a tiger's mug, but Sasuke could not see them. He could only imagine.

"The Hokage gave us strict instructions to keep you in this room."

"Good for you," he spat right back, having no intention of stopping.

The ANBU had no intention of letting him go.

A hand planted itself firmly against Sasuke's chest and the Uchiha wanted nothing more than to rip it off with his bare hands. "Now, now, Uchiha, you wouldn't want me to beat you into submission, would you?"

"Not if I beat you first."

"And risk your impression on the Hokage? You've already gone and landed yourself this lonely little room. And they've made you blind, too. A little ingenious, if I must say so myself."

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Your opinion is unwanted."

"Ah, but I have freedom of speech, right, Uchiha?"

"Well, well."

A new voice joined the ANBU's, and it was finally one that Sasuke recognized. He heard the familiar _step . . . step . . . step . . ._ of an idle saunter, breathed in the earthy aroma, heard the flip of a page or two, and was never so glad to see – _hear_ – Kakashi in his life.

"Ah, it's you!" he heard the silver-haired man say with feigned surprise. "I believe we met a month ago. You were that cat that answered the door –"

"_Tiger."_

Kakashi waved his hand dismissively. "Same genus."

"Not really."

Sasuke felt an arm slide around his shoulders, could feel the weight pulling him closer to a figure, almost protectively.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to take Sasuke here down to my hospital room so I can have a chat with him."

"The Hokage gave strict orders –"

"Oh, I don't think she'll mind."

The hand on his shoulder squeezed him tightly. Sasuke thought Kakashi was trying to reassure him of something. When the ANBU did not object further (although Sasuke could practically feel the frustration radiating from him), Kakashi turned Sasuke around and led him from the room.

"Oh yes," he continued over his shoulder nonchalantly. "Touch him one more time, and I will have you reported to the Hokage for maltreatment." He waved his hand magnanimously. "After I break your fingers, that is."

And he left.

Sasuke would never tell him directly, but he was thankful Kakashi was watching over him. He allowed the man to lead the way, listening to the breath on the back of his neck telling him "Stairs.", or "Foot up. Good," like he was just beginning to learn how to walk.

The Uchiha could feel the bubbling presence of the blond the second he was led into what he assumed was their hospital room.

"Oh man, Sasuke," came the disbelieving whisper. "You won't believe what we've done."

". . . So we just wasted a month to bring the enemy to the village?"

Kakashi and Sasuke were seated around Naruto's bed. The trio had just finished explanations about Jun and coming up with further theories. Sasuke felt irritated. It had taken them one month of pain and torture to retrieve nothing but the enemy.

This would not look good in his favor.

"Well, you didn't really waste a month. Would you rather have stayed holed up in your apartment with the ANBU still watching over you?"

Sasuke lurched forward with a sudden slap on his back. He turned to glare in the direction of the blond who he was sure had done it. "I mean, come on, Sasuke. Look at you. You're not sitting in your little dark corners, all depressed anymore. This month was good for you. Admit it."

He would admit it over his dead body.

An hour passed and Sakura was still resting silently. Kakashi took away Naruto's sense of hearing once more after Sasuke had purposely commented how "unfair" it was that the blond could hear while he had to struggle with the eternal darkness, to which Naruto kicked the Uchiha in his shin, to which Sasuke groped blindly for the blond's hair, caught his ear instead, and yanked as hard as he could. To which Naruto screamed. To which Sasuke almost – _almost_ – snickered.

To which the Elders walked into the room with disapproving shakes of their heads, Tsunade entering breathlessly seconds later with an apologetic countenance.

"I believe we ordered the Uchiha into a separate room," rasped Homura, his eyes but mere slits behind his glasses. "Where are the ANBU?"

Kakashi smiled, his eyes closing. "I let the lion out of its cage for a bit."

"We are still dealing with an S-ranked missing-nin here, Hatake. He is no longer under your jurisdiction. He is under ours. He should be thankful we allowed him hospitalization."

"_He_ is standing right here." Kakashi moved a little to the side to allow them a better look at the Uchiha. "Why don't you speak directly to him instead of acting like he is not present?"

"Hatake," came Tsunade's warning.

"I did not expect this disrespect out of you, Kakashi," Koharu said in bitter amusement.

Sasuke didn't expect it either.

"Please," Naruto spoke up. "He isn't going to go off and kill someone. He's not going to escape. Just let him stay here until we get our explanations and then we'll make a deal or something. Okay?"

"No. I'll go."

Sasuke stood up and began to walk, hoping he remembered where the door had been lest he risk looking like an idiot in front of the Elders. Kakashi seemed to be thinking along the same lines. He stood up, putting one hand protectively on Sasuke's shoulder, and said, "I'll be escorting him. You know, to make sure he doesn't run away or anything like that." And they left.

"Such rudeness!"

"Such amusement," Danzo whispered with a wry smirk.

Kakashi returned moments later. Naruto watched him warily; he knew when his sensei was rebelling. He had seen the feigned smile and the airy agreeing before, recognizing them as signs that said he did not want any trouble, but that he thought the Elders were being ridiculous. And quite frankly, Naruto agreed. The Elders had not endured that one month. They had not been there to see the tears, hear the laughter, feel the pain, speak the truth, and taste the victory. They had no right to treat Sasuke they way they had.

Sai came in a moment later, his movements more robotic than usual around Danzo. He met Naruto's smile and wave with dead eyes.

"Now that we're all here," Tsunade spoke through the tension, "we can begin the debriefing. Naruto, if you don't mind, I'd like you to relay this information to Sakura when she wakes up. Her chakra levels were critically low, so I need her to rest as much as she can." Even though Naruto could not hear her voice, he could see plainly in her eyes that she wanted him to tell Sasuke as well.

"I will also need a full mission report. I trust you've done enough missions to know how to put one together. Do not leave out any details. I want to know what you did every single day you were there. I don't even care if you tell me what you had for breakfast. This mission report should be the most extensive thing you've ever written in your lives. Is that understood?"

It was understood.

"And," Koharu added in her aged voice, "an evaluation of the Uchiha boy. Every detail. I have asked Sai here to give an evaluation as well, since I trust his judgment to be with_out_ bias."

Naruto caught Sai's eyes to plead with him silently. The black-haired boy looked away.

"Watanabe Jun is part of an underground agency working to infiltrate Konoha. He is _not_ the leader, but he is still of a high position in the agency." Tsunade sat. The Elders remained standing. "He took his position as Feudal Lord to his advantage, knowing if he played the damsel in distress, someone – Konoha especially – would come to his rescue. When he entered Konoha, he would meet with me and attempt to infiltrate our top secret archives, acting as a messenger to the agency."

Danzo cleared his throat, indicating he would begin his own speech. Tsunade let him with the twitch of her eyebrow.

"At the same time of your mission to retrieve the Feudal Lord, my Root ANBU were to investigate an agency attempting to infiltrate Konoha. Coincidentally, this agency was the same one Watanabe was a part of. Our missions soon coincided."

"So we were after the same enemy, but we didn't know it until the end." Kakashi hummed slightly to himself. It was all beginning to make sense. "That was why we encountered some of your Root ANBU when we were being attacked once."

"This agency, we soon learned, did not only want to infiltrate Konoha, but was after Uchiha Sasuke for experimentation. When the Feudal Lord recognized Sasuke as part of your team, he ordered for his capture as a side mission to their infiltration." Tsunade rummaged around in her pocket and pulled out a vial of blood. "I found traces of a drug in Sasuke's bloodstream that was supposed to weaken the nerve impulses around his eyes. I'm guessing they were going to have them removed."

Naruto looked at Sai, whose eyes still looked dead and who hadn't spoken a word since he stood alongside Danzo, stiff as ever. Had Sai been protecting Sasuke when he had joined their team?

"For a month, my team has looked into the underground agency and has caught two of their main leaders. With Jun in our grasp, that makes it three, although we have speculated that there are at least five in total." Danzo placed both of his hands behind his back and stood taller. "We will be taking Jun in for interrogation tonight, and we will resume the mission in the morning."

At this, Naruto turned his eyes towards Sai for one final time, but the boy had lowered his head and turned away. Naruto frowned. Sai would be going on the mission _again_.

"Will we be allowed to see the interrogation?" asked Kakashi.

"Only you." Tsunade's eyes shot the silver-haired man a pointed glance. "You can tell your students whatever you want later, but as for now, only you can see the interrogation."

Koharu stood taller. "Remember. Mission report. Full details. Or I will personally see to it that this mission does not count on your records." With a turn, Koharu led the Elders out of the room, a thick trace of awkwardness, tension, and confusion in their wake like the trailing slime of a slug.

Naruto turned to Kakashi.

"I'm still confused," he said half-heartedly.

Kakashi clapped one hand on his shoulder. "I think it'll take a while to sink in. Get some rest. I'll tell you all about the investigation in the morning."

The night was silent and still, heavy with the closing of the mission and the beginning of life. Sasuke, alone in his bed in the hospital room, jerked his head suddenly in the silence. There was an oncoming presence. He tilted his head to the side slightly, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed; the ANBU had been ordered away from his room, and Naruto had long ended his conversation and debriefing, so who could possibly come in . . .?

"Hey."

Sakura. She had her voice back. Sasuke stared curiously in her direction.

"You can speak?"

A chuckle. "Kakashi let me have my voice back for a bit since Tsunade was getting really frustrated when she spoke to me."

"Great. So I'm the only one who's had his disability forever."

Another giggle. He felt the end of his bed deflate, knowing Sakura was probably sitting on its edge. "They debriefed you, I hope." He grumbled, and that was all she needed. "They're talking about letting you back onto Team 7."

"You are suddenly rather talkative, when just a month ago, you pretended I didn't exist."

"You don't exactly want to slap me around anymore. At least, I hope not."

"I don't."

"Good."

Silence.

Sasuke felt rather uncomfortable. He knew Sakura was staring at him; he might have been blind, but there was always a sixth sense that told him someone's eyes were on him and they were not moving.

"Sasuke," Sakura began again in such a whisper that Sasuke, even with his heightened sense of hearing, had to strain to listen. "I'm sorry . . . I treated you like the ANBU treated you."

"You didn't."

No one could possibly treat him the same way the ANBU did.

The silence thickened, and the darkness from the night floated heavily into the room through the curtains to shroud the two figures. They were alone in the room, in the little corner by the window, one blind and the other staring intensely at obsidian eyes that blended with the shadows.

". . . Are you sorry you left Konoha?"

They sat in silence for several minutes. Sasuke played with his senses, turning his attention to the IV drip seeping into his hand, to the soft drone of the air conditioning, to the pillow behind his back. He did not want to think about the kind of answer he would give and hoped Sakura would understand.

The silence went on. The bed suddenly depressed again, closer, near his waist. He could feel Sakura leaning closer to him. Her breath was suddenly on his skin. Hovering in front of his face. His nose. His lips. There was a second of hesitation.

His cheek.

Her lips pressed against his cheek softly, tenderly. Sasuke did not object.

It was not that he liked it. He wanted to prove something to Sakura. To show her something. He did not turn his head to kiss her on the lips, nor did he move when her lips left his cheek. Her gaze was upon him again, and he finally spoke.

"Sakura," he said steadily, as if he did not want to scare her away. "Sakura," he said again. The name was heavy on his tongue. "I do not fall in love."

It was not "I cannot fall in love" or "I will not fall in love". It was "I _do not_ fall in love". As if the Uchiha was a species that had been built without the gene for the capability.

Sakura gave a small laugh. Sasuke knew there were tears in her eyes – not yet falling, he knew, too, but still brimming them, making the emerald of her irises shine and sparkle in a way that if Sasuke had been capable of falling in love, he would have been swept off of his feet.

He sighed. Even after he had left Konoha, after he had left her on that bench, after he had hurt her, she still loved him. Sometimes Sasuke wished he could understand the feeling just so he could understand her insanity.

Only sometimes.

"Sakura." He said her name again, like an apology. If he said it enough times, she would forgive him, perhaps. "Why don't you try loving someone who will give up the world for you?"

His mind went to the blond whose sapphire eyes sparkled more than the jewel itself, to the blond whose hair was spun from the rays of the sun, who would do anything for Sakura even if it meant taking on two more enemies, even if it meant having a sword plunged through his gut.

Even if it meant dying.

There was Sakura's watery laugh again, and Sasuke knew. She could not fall in love with Naruto – not yet, anyway. Not while she still thought of him as a brother instead of as a lover. Sasuke really wanted to understand. Love the person who hurts you. Do not love the person who loves you. He felt grateful he was not part of the sick and twisted triangle of feelings that made no sense.

"This is all hopeless, isn't it?" whispered Sakura.

"No one will be happy with the way things are going."

And they sat in silence until the sun began its lonely descent below the horizon. Until Naruto barged into the room in a bundle of laughter and declared that he had ice cream for Sakura and a tomato for Sasuke.

Sasuke heard the quiet thank you Sakura gave the blond, and his eyebrows furrowed.

That poor, poor idiot.

Night came.

Sasuke was forced to stay in the confines of the hospital (as was Sakura) because of his low nutrient levels (and because the Elders wanted to keep their eye on him now that the ANBU were not allowed to watch over him). It did not matter to him. He was in Konoha, and he was blind – he could do virtually nothing.

There was someone else in the room.

Sasuke knew. He had heard the windows open ever-so-slightly with ninja-like stealth, but he, with ninja-like detection, heard them and felt them around him. With experience, Sasuke slowed his breathing down to give the illusion that he was asleep as he heard another figure approach him.

"Should we sedate him?"

"At least long enough until we're out of this village so he won't attract anyone. Then we'll have Jun-sama tell us what to do with him."

He could have struggled. He could have knocked the two ninja – enemy ninja, he was sure – out with a single swipe of his hand. He could have snapped the needle being inserted into his neck in two and given each intruder a slow and painful death.

But he didn't.

He let them lift him out of his bed, let them slide the IV needle from his arm, let them hoist him over one shoulder like a knapsack. Because he still had a life mission to fulfill. And the only way to get out of Konoha without it being classified as a missing-nin again was to be kidnapped out of the village.

Sasuke gritted his teeth before he entered unconsciousness.

Traitor.


	13. Traitorous

**Author's Note:** . . . Hi, guys . . . It hasn't been THAT long, has it?

Okay, so guess what? This is kind of sudden, but . . . **this is the second-to-last chapter of this story**. Yup. That's right. It's very sudden because I had been thinking about two things: either ending it soon, or creating some plot twist that would elongate the story. I chose to end it soon because 1) I didn't think IB work would get so bad, but it did, and I won't have time to produce good longitudinal work, and 2) the plot twist would have been pointless, and I think drawing out this story just kills the effects I wanted it to have.

So here it is, the second-to-last chapter of this story. Focus on characterization, people, because it's important to note their growth (or lack thereof) and interactions.

**Chapter Thirteen**  
…**:::Traitorous:::…**

His first instinct when he awoke was to vomit. The aftereffects of whatever drug had been injected into him and the swaying of the man whose shoulder he was on was not the most effective combination. The instinct, however, was suppressed as he attempted to act as unconscious as ever.

Silence hung heavily in the air; no voices betrayed any information of what time of day it was, where they were, or how many people walked ahead or behind. Sasuke let his ears gather the information for him. From the gravelly, syncopated _c-crunch, c-crunch_ of the feet around him, he suspected there were four people in total and that they were walking on what seemed to be sand or rock. The footsteps echoed loudly, giving the Uchiha the impression that they were in a confined area.

A cave?

Four people. All he would have to do is take down the one whose shoulder he bounced upon, then deal with three others. It would not be a quiet takedown, so surprising the others was out of the question. And rocks would not absorb his lightning jutsu, taking away any possibilities of having Chidori seep through the walls or ground and into the bodies of the enemies.

_Here goes nothing._

He slowly let his hand move with the swaying motion of the man he was slung over, trying to make its movement to the man's wrist as natural as possible. His fingers brushed up briefly against the vein he wanted, and he waited for the second sway to clamp quickly around the wrist and release a shock of electricity surging through the man's nervous system. Sasuke heard the soft sigh before the weight beneath him crumbled to the ground, the Uchiha jumping quickly from his back and to the body in front of him to release another jolt into that man's neck before the other two could realize what was going on.

With two people crumpled to the floor, there was enough time for the remaining two enemies to turn around and cry out in rage. Sasuke took to his feet, wavering slightly to adjust to the aftereffects of the drug, and began to run from the voices. He stretched his hands out around him to feel the rocky walls at his fingertips. A tunnel, he determined. A tunnel, most probably underground because of the sediments lining the wall that crumbled as he touched them. It might have been a tunnel leading to Konoha, or it might have been a tunnel leading to the base of the enemy.

Sasuke did not care enough about either to stop and think with jutsus being fired at him from behind.

He closed his blind eyes instinctively to concentrate on where he was. The tunnel was not intricate; he did not run _smack_ into any perpendicular walls. But he was getting nowhere. There was no rush of fresh air, no doors, no ladders, no nothing. Sasuke gritted his teeth and ran faster, the heat of a fire element jutsu just behind him.

If he could not find the exit, he would have to make one himself.

Sasuke was unsure of how far underground the tunnel was, but he was getting nowhere and was officially desperate. He stopped, hearing the footsteps echoing in the distance, and turned his head to face what he hoped was a nearby ceiling. There would be no time to think. The footsteps were getting closer. Mustering up as much energy as he could possibly bring together, he pulled his fist back, bent his knees, and gritted his teeth as the chirping of a thousand birds echoed deafeningly from the walls.

"He's escaping!"

The words were muffled from the whistling of the wind as Sasuke launched himself from the ground and propelled himself into the air, feeling the ceiling break beneath his fingers seconds later. Dust fell into his open eyes, rocks crumpled around him, and he felt himself push through deeply, but it was not enough. They were too far underground. And if he didn't act quickly, the ceiling would collapse on top of him.

Another round of chirping birds gathered at his opposite fist in a split second and he lunged forwards mid-air, slamming his fist once again against the rock and hoping, praying, wishing to feel the slightest bit of fresh air upon his face.

What he got was a mouthful of dust before a lungful of air. The rocks broke away around him and he was suddenly tumbling and stumbling over wet grass, his eyes tearing from the dust and his lungs screaming to breathe. He coughed for quite some time as he tried to figure out where he was.

But he couldn't.

He was blind. And he was, thanks to the consecutive Chidori executions, weak. The roaring rocks began to settle and close the opening he had made, and he waited until the world was silent and until he could hear his own hammering heart to finally stand up and brush himself off.

He was getting sick of being blind. It was about time he removed the jutsu. Sasuke smirked. Kakashi, perhaps, had overlooked the fact that the silver-haired man was not the only person who possessed the Sharingan's copying powers. The second time the man had performed the jutsu, Sasuke made sure his eyes were taking in every movement of his hands, every animal sign, every twitch of his body.

He could have taken away his disability at any moment of his choice.

His eyes already closed, he replayed Kakashi's exhibition in his head and allowed his hands to trace the steps, smirking in satisfaction when he was done. With a sense of triumph, he brought his hands up to his eyes.

Nothing.

He frowned. Jutsu. Hand signals. Eyes.

Nothing.

It wasn't working. Sasuke cursed, gritting his teeth; perhaps Kakashi had taken it into account after all. The silver-haired man had just unwittingly foiled the entirety of Sasuke's plans. He could do nothing when he was blind. There were not enough curses in the world to explain the frustration that began bubbling in Sasuke's stomach. If he had had the chakra, he would have sent another spell of Chidori plunging through any nearby trees. But he didn't. He was weak, he was blind, and he was lost.

It was time for Plan B.

* * *

Jun had escaped.

It was more like someone had broken him out, Tsunade explained in a hurried breath as she pulled Kakashi out of the hospital's waiting room by the hand. Six ANBU were found dead just outside of his cellar; the enemy must have been extremely powerful to kill all six of them without even allowing one of them to alert Ibiki.

Kakashi briefly mourned the loss of his fallen brethren before he turned to the side to see Naruto, his sapphire eyes wide and the flower in his hand crushed slightly.

"I've got to warn Sasuke," he said, moving without the slightest hint of permission. Kakashi wanted to pull him back, watching the blond disappear from view, but Tsunade was pulling him in the opposite direction and into a private room so she could explain the situation to him.

Naruto ran at record speed, attempting to keep the flower in his fist alive as he raced down the hall. He stopped briefly at Sakura's door. The pink-haired ninja was sitting up in bed, preparing for her dispatch. She smiled when Naruto came in, but the blond – out of breath at that point – handed her the crushed flower and smiled apologetically before racing back out. "Emergency," he threw the words over his shoulder, and was gone.

"Sasuke!" he shouted as he slid the door open. His eyes desperately searched for the brooding pile of blackness and self-pity, but the bed sat unoccupied, the sheets folded neatly back and the machinery wires swinging placidly with the breeze from an open window.

Sasuke was gone. There could only be one explanation:

He was kidnapped.

Naruto forced his feet into an endless race, the whites of the walls blurring as he rushed past them to the waiting room. Kakashi, in the process of following Tsunade out of the hospital, whipped his head to the side at the panicked call of his name.

"Kakashi!" came the call again. Naruto stopped short in front of him, eyebrows up in distress. "Sasuke! He's been kidnapped!"

And they ran the endless race together.

Kakashi stood over Sasuke's empty bed, his teeth gritting and his blood boiling and his face turning heated from the amount of anger that surged through his silent body.

"Naruto," he tried desperately to explain, "he wasn't kidnapped."

"Kakashi, your mask –"

Naruto flinched when his sensei brought his hands harshly above his ears. The returning sense of sound startled him.

"He wasn't kidnapped," Kakashi tried to explain impatiently once more.

He was Hatake Kakashi. He was long walks along the forests, lazy saunters, and carefree attitudes. He was not boiling anger, harshness, and impatient toe-taps. But he had failed one too many times. He was sick of failure. He was sick of thinking he had made a breakthrough, only to find Sasuke gone again. Sick of it.

"He has to have been, Kakashi-sensei. He's changed. He's –"

"Look at the bed, Naruto. Does that look like a sign of struggle? The sheets are neat."

"They could have sedated him –"

"He spent two years with Orochimaru. His level of detection is beyond the norm. He would have heard someone break in –"

"He's in the hospital –"

"He's strong enough to fight back."

Kakashi heard it. He heard the crack in Naruto's voice. The break of the desperation that told him the blond was struggling to hold water in his hands, to hold onto the good he saw in Sasuke. And he was saddened. For years, he watched his most promising student see the good in everyone – _only_ the good. Never once did he think people were capable of bad things, even when the evidence was right in front of him.

"Naruto . . ." But he stopped, because he didn't know what to say. What could he say? Your best friend might turn out to be the next monster they try to kill? Your metaphorical brother stabbed you in the back? A bond you thought existed doesn't really exist? Stop trying?

"No."

Naruto's head was down now, his eyes away from view, but Kakashi knew they were watering.

"He has to have a reason. He didn't just leave."

"He has a reason. It's called Itachi."

"He's changed!" He shouted that, eyes piercing into Kakashi's own, a stray, angry tear gliding over his cheeks. "He would never . . . he would never . . ." His head lowered again, and his shoulders began to shake with the effort it took him not to cry. "I thought . . . He . . . I know . . ."

In the middle of the chaos, as ANBU after ANBU was sent out into the forest on the search for the enemy and the so-called kidnapped Uchiha Sasuke, Kakashi gave Naruto all the time in the world. He pulled the blond in with one sturdy arm around his shoulders and held him close. Naruto had bottled up his feelings for far too long than was normal.

Kakashi felt the boy shaking beneath his grasp and he sighed.

At least he hadn't failed with Naruto.

* * *

Angry Sasuke stormed his way through the forest/tundra/desert/mountain/whatever it was he was in. He could not tell. He could not see. And it only made him angrier. And this anger prevented him from taking the time to examine where he was, and therefore, he could not tell. He could not see. And it was an endless cycle of anger.

He was thinking carefully; there had been no Plan B when he set out. The jutsu should have worked. He should have been able to see again.

_I'll say I was kidnapped, but I made it back_, he thought. _. . . _If_ I make it back to begin with._

And that thought began the long, aimless trek. For an hour, Sasuke walked, hands unconsciously hovering slightly in front of him to prevent himself from smacking into a tree (or a rock wall, or a block of ice – he was still unsure where he was by that point). The Uchiha tried _not_ to think of how helpless he was in such a situation.

"Oh?"

His heart practically burst from his chest the second he heard the sound in the silence. The dull _thud . . . thud . . . _it had been playing had skipped its symphony and gone straight to an erratic, panicked _thud-thud-thud-thud-thu-thu-thu-thu-th-th-th-th- _. . . The blood in his veins froze to match the snow that crunched beneath his boots.

It was him.

"Itachi."

He unconsciously stood straighter, muscles tensed and teeth clenched, arms straight at his sides. He felt the flare of chakra to his left and turned his head, keeping his sightless eyes from his brother.

"Are you blind?"

He hated, loathed, _despised_ the amused tone he heard in the question, could almost imagine the subtle smirk on that emotionless face. There was a shift of movement suddenly and Sasuke could smell an odd musk wafting to his nose: mint and earth.

"You are blind." Pause. "Well, now."

"It's just some stupid training jutsu Kakashi put on me." He swiped furiously at his brother's waving hand. The flare of chakra disappeared.

"Ah, yes." The monotonous voice was further away. "I heard of your return to Konohagakure. Going soft, are we, little brother?"

"Shut up. It doesn't matter if I'm blind. I can still fight."

He crouched, his hand instinctively moving to the sword on his waist that was not there. Silence reigned for a while. A nearby tree shook its leaves in an attempt to lessen the tension. Sasuke waited. He had been waiting all his life, and here was the one moment he could attempt to prove himself, even if he was blind and low on chakra. Oh what a feat it would be to see Itachi's neck beneath his boots, his blood sprayed over the virgin snow.

"No."

Footsteps sounded closer, Sasuke could hear.

"You are weak. You are blind. You do not stand a chance."

"Fight me, you coward."

"This is not our final battle, Sasuke. You know this. Do not act irrationally."

"Shut up and fight me!"

"Sasuke."

_"Fight me!"_

"Fine."

And Sasuke saw darkness.

* * *

She sat there, swinging her legs to the rhythm of her heartbeat. Her hands clenched the bench she sat on with white-knuckled intensity as she burrowed deeper and deeper in thought. She wasn't stupid. She knew why Naruto had looked so distraught when he entered her hospital room as chaos unfolded in the hospital around them. Why his eyes had been rimmed with red. Why he was hastily wiping away at his glistened cheeks. And she would not tell him, no – she would never bring up something like that to him, after he had tried _so hard_ for _so long_ – but she knew. She knew Sasuke had left.

Again.

_He probably has a good reason_, she told herself, and a part of her wanted to tell Naruto that, too, but the other part of her shook her head fiercely at the fact that she was defending the Uchiha when just a month ago, she would not have been surprised.

They were in silence for a while – just the two of them, like it had been for two years. Just the two of them. Tsunade had ordered Kakashi on another mission (without the slightest bit of apology; Kakashi was a big boy and could handle himself) with other Jounin and a handful of ANBU. They were to track the enemy to their hideout and prepare for infiltration. Anyone who found Uchiha Sasuke was to return him to Konoha immediately; Tsunade took it as a kidnapping. Kakashi, who gritted his teeth in the silence, would not correct her.

And no matter how hard Naruto beat against Kakashi's chest, he was not allowed on the mission.

So there he sat, his legs limp next to Sakura's swinging ones, and the two of them waited. Waited. Waited. Because they were always waiting for Sasuke. And they were always waiting with each other. Sakura sighed inwardly.

_No one will be happy with the way things are going._

_

* * *

_". . . him back. Go."

There was a sudden gust of wind against his face. His eyes twitched beneath their lids, annoyance quickly building up in his mind at the blades of grass that mercilessly tickled the back of his neck. Something was sliding under his knees and the small of his back and he suddenly jerked up, hitting painfully into something solid. Someone groaned. Sasuke opened his eyes to darkness.

"Calm down, Uchiha."

Hyuuga Neji.

Sasuke could not see the pale irises of the Hyuuga, nor could he see the man rubbing the side of his head, but he could place the low, even voice of the prodigy anywhere. There was a hand on his chest to stop him from rising further, but Sasuke slapped it away from him and stood on wobbling legs.

"Where's Kakashi?" he demanded. He narrowed his eyes in Neji's direction.

The white-eyed prodigy cocked his head ever-so-slightly, fascinated by the jutsu Kakashi had warned him about. "He's leading another search team –"

"Lead me to him."

Well, now. "I've been ordered to lead you back –"

"Lead me to him!"

Neji's calm face took on an annoyed demeanor. Who did Sasuke think he was to make such demands? Despite remembering that he had almost gotten killed during an attempt to return the Uchiha, Neji did not remember the younger prodigy as aggressive and rude, only as quiet and skilled.

"You've changed."

Sasuke seethed. He didn't have time to chat up a storm of small talk with Neji; who knew how long he had been unconscious, or how far Itachi had gotten. He tried to turn away, but a hand on his upper arm held him back.

"You're bleeding. Uchiha, I need to take you back to Konoha immediately. You're still in danger."

"Hyuuga, release me. There is something important I must take care of with Kakashi this instant. You don't understand –"

"More important than your life?"

Sasuke wrenched his arm out of Neji's grasp and turned in his direction, eyes flaming red and mouth twisted into a hideous snarl.

"This _is_ my life."

Neji did not need his Byakugan to know Itachi had been in the area.

"Okay," he tried with the same tactic he would use on a frightened animal. "Okay, I'll bring Kakashi here, and he'll be the one to take you back to Konoha." He bit his thumb, drawing blood to summon a small carrier owl. Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed at the noise. "I'm just summoning an owl since we're not using radios. I'll write a note. Do you want to write it?"

"I think you are perfectly capable of writing your own note, Hyuuga."

Neji sneered at the blind boy; he had simply wanted the Uchiha to dictate what he wanted to say in case he did not trust the Hyuuga. He suspected, however, that Sasuke would be too embarrassed to write blindly, and so he bit back the sarcasm that leaked from his mouth and quickly scrawled a note that would be attached to the bird.

When he was done, he released the owl into the frosted air and turned to face the Uchiha. He wasn't sure whether to be amused, angry, or annoyed, and so he settled for curious. Here was Uchiha Sasuke in front of him for the first time in two – three? – years. Neji had only heard of his return and had seen the shell of the Uchiha once during his torture, strictly out of curiosity and from a distance. But here he was, speaking to him for the first time since a rod of hardened spider web had pierced its way through his body and he was beneath the jutsu of medic nins for seven hours.

"I am going to be frank," he spoke suddenly in the silence as they waited. "I can never forgive you for what you've done."

Sasuke would never admit it, but he froze inside.

"I never asked for your forgiveness."

Neji shrugged. "I have the right to speak my mind. What you did to Naruto, and what you made my teammates go through for your rescue . . . I will never forgive you."

Sasuke wanted to bite back with sarcasm to show Neji's words did not hit him as hard as they had, but he couldn't. He stayed silent. _I'm sorry you feel that way_ he vaguely thought as the anger for Itachi dissipated momentarily. There was an odd twang in his heart that he had never felt before – a kind of sad loneliness knowing that things in Konoha would never be the same before. He brushed away the feeling as ridiculous; he had known all along that things in Konoha would never be the same.

_Had I really?_

They remained in silence – for that was both of their comfortable environments – until the pitter-patter of feet sounded in the dense forest. It was Kakashi and his pack of dogs, each of the canines vanishing when they spotted Sasuke. The Uchiha stiffened when he felt their presences, and when he heard Kakashi's quick breathing. All of his anger returned. Neji felt it and stepped backwards to allow the two men to converse, watching with curios eyes.

Kakashi took in the scene with a single sweeping glance; he saw Sasuke's shoulders begin to shake in fury. "What happened?"

"Take it off, Kakashi," Sasuke hissed through his teeth. "Give me back my sight. We're not on the mission anymore. This training is ridiculous."

"Now, now, Sasuke," and Kakashi was trying not to scare a frightened animal much like Neji had tried to do. "Just let me know what happened. There's no need to become so angry." But Kakashi already had the gist of the situation down from Neji's note.

"Give it _back!_" Sasuke's anger was pouring out in his voice that grew louder and louder. "Give me back my damned sight, Kakashi! I need to get stronger! I didn't stay in Konoha just to get weaker because of some stupid training method you decided to put us through!"

Kakashi let him rant.

"If I had had my sight, I wouldn't have gotten kidnapped and I wouldn't –"

"Don't lie to me."

Ranting, Kakashi could stand. But if Sasuke was going to stand there and outright _lie_ to him, he would not take it. Not after everything they had been through.

"You weren't kidnapped, Sasuke. I know."

Sasuke did not allow himself to falter, because if he hesitated even the slightest bit, Kakashi would know. He had long since mastered the art of lying. "Don't play games with me, Kakashi. I need my sight back. Give it to me. I know you did something to the jutsu so I wouldn't be able to replicate it."

"No."

It was the bluntness of Kakashi's words – _word_ – that drove Sasuke over the edge. His shoulders shook with the intensity it took him not to punch his former sensei. He raked his hands over his face and began to shout words Kakashi did not listen to. The silver-haired man was staring at his student – still his student – instead. Sasuke was turned away from the man, blind eyes narrowed and face flushed slightly from his anger as he spoke to thin air. It would have been almost comical if the situation hadn't been as grave as it was.

Kakashi would have loved to take the jutsu off. Would have loved to stare Sasuke hard in the eye and show him the disappointment that leaked from it like metaphorical tears, because he was crying on the inside, crying because no matter what he did with Sasuke, no matter how hard _anyone_ tried, the boy seemed like a lost cause.

"I won't let you chase after Itachi, Sasuke."

The Uchiha froze, eyes narrowed. "I'm not asking for your permission, Kakashi."

"I don't care."

Neji quietly stepped into the shadows; he did not belong in this conversation. His duty was done. Without the slightest hint of departure, he propelled himself from the icy floor to take after his team. Uchiha Sasuke, to him, would always be just a face and never a soul.

"I'm sorry, you seem to be mistaken. You're not my sensei anymore."

Kakashi didn't even have a new lecture for him. He could only give the same one over and over again, no matter how overused it became. What could he say to someone who would not listen to him no matter how hard he tried? No matter what he said?

"I don't want to think you're a lost cause, Sasuke. Really, I don't." He ran his gloved hands over his face. "You just . . . Get over this revenge. Please, Sasuke. You don't realize how many people you're hurting by doing this."

"Let me kill Itachi, Kakashi."

Kakashi was completely fed up by this point. If he had been anyone else, he would have doubled over with his hands fisting his hair, tears leaking from his eyes and his mouth open in a scream to release only a fraction of the frustrations and the stress that weighed him down. But he was Hatake Kakashi. And so he simply reached forward and tapped Sasuke against the neck, and the boy fell into his arms.

Because Kakashi was done talking. He had said all that needed to be said.

* * *

Sasuke awoke to darkness.

There was a presence in his room - a presence that did not make his stiffened body stiffen further, because it was too familiar for him to be startled. The room was also familiar, even in his blindness; there was no getting over the cold, hard wooden floor and the atmosphere that pressed his ribs against his diaphragm. He was back in his _(no, not his – never his)_ apartment that he had been assigned to. Back in that corner he had crawled out of in the past month.

He opened his eyes to darkness. A heavy sigh pressed his ribs further against his diaphragm, as if the atmosphere was not enough.

What the hell had he done?

If everything had just worked out in his favor, he would not be there. He would have Itachi's throat beneath his sword, begging for mercy. Or at least he would have his sight back; he felt Kakashi kept it on more as a punishment for him than as a training technique, since he had spent the last few days in a hospital rather than training.

But could he actually believe he would have had Itachi at his mercy? Kakashi was right, but Sasuke would never admit it, even though the stabbing feeling in his gut was threatening to kill him if he didn't right his wrongs. The Uchiha would have continued his contemplation of life had he not felt the aforementioned presence. He sighed again.

"What do you want, Naruto?"

"I'm not Naruto."

The voice came from his left, and he wondered how Sakura heard him since he had not turned his head to face her. "Kakashi returned your sense of hearing?"

"He returned all of our senses." Her voice sounded confused, and anxiety crept up on him.

"He didn't return mine."

"I saw him do it to you." The confusion was evident this time, and he could imagine her eyebrows drawing up and her mouth twisting into a frown. "Did they give you anything when they kidnapped you?"

Sasuke would have snorted at the word 'kidnapped' had it not been for the situation. "I was unconscious," he said truthfully. He slapped himself mentally, remembering the time they had tried to force him to swallow their pills; they had tried to kidnap him for a reason. The anxiety that had crept up on him now engulfed him. "It's not permanent, is it?"

"Can I check?"

He nodded his head, inwardly puzzled as to why she asked his permission first. There was something different about her; he couldn't see it, couldn't place it, but he could feel it. She was different. Warm, bare hands covered his face for a few moments, the pulse of chakra soothing his nerves.

"It's the same drug they tried to give you a while ago," she spoke, her hands still over his eyes. "It weakens your eyes so that they don't harm them or their sight if they remove them."

Sasuke would be lying if he said he didn't shiver at the thought.

"The effects should wear off naturally in a day or two, but I'm removing traces of the drug from your system now to speed that up."

He let her work as he sat in the silence, waiting for her to finish. It was a comforting feeling: her soft, soft hands _(still soft after all of that training?)_ against his skin, the warm chakra raising the hairs on the back of his neck. When she finished, the warm feeling left with her, and he frowned.

He stopped frowning, however, when the world returned to him. It was a rather ugly world, in his opinion. The sight of the apartment was nothing he had missed; it was shrouded in darkness, the tattered curtains revealing the time of night. Sakura had turned on the distant light of the kitchen, the soft glow of the light bulb straining Sasuke's eyes when he stared at it for too long.

"Can you see?"

He nodded his head ever-so-slightly, turning his eyes that matched the darkness around him to her face and sipping her features in. "So why are you here?"

A shrug. "Kakashi-sensei –" he could have sworn he heard her place an emphasis on the 'sensei' "- said that we should watch over you while he went back on his mission, and it's my shift." There was a bitter tone to her voice that Sasuke did not miss.

"You're angry."

He watched her eyes narrow. "Angry doesn't even begin to describe it."

"Why?"

He wasn't in the mood to play guessing games. He wanted to know, and he wanted to correct it, because there was something unnatural about the way her eyes narrowed that he did not like and that he did not want to see ever again. And there was something unnatural about the way he cared about that.

"You have the _nerve_ to leave Konoha _again_ after everything we'd been through?" Her anger gave a new definition to the word. She became animated, standing up and throwing her arms around, her emerald eyes fixated on the Uchiha's. "And do _not_ give me that phony kidnapped story when I know for _certain_ you could have easily detected the enemy and taken them out!"

He was silent.

"Never mind me. Never mind Kakashi-sensei. You _dare_ to hurt Naruto again? After everything he has done for you? He was the _only _one who believed in you and you stab him in the back –!"

She was suddenly on her back, Sasuke's body pressed on top of hers. His eyes bore into hers, and his hand clamped down firmly on her mouth.

"You move too much when you speak," Sasuke whispered. "And you speak too much when you're angry."

He was very much aware of the position he had put Sakura in. He was very much aware that he could have silenced her in a variety of other ways. But he wanted to take her away from her anger, and placing her in a position that betrayed her feelings was the best way he knew how. A very small, miniscule part of him took pleasure and comfort in the position, but the larger part of him explained it as the fact that he had never been with a woman before. Uchiha Sasuke had never kissed a woman. And here was Sakura right in front of him, very much accessible and very much willing.

But then again, even when he was with Orochimaru, women had always been very much accessible and very much willing.

So he did what he always did. He picked himself up from her body slightly so that he could move to the side and sit down, watching her as she righted herself and as the anger flourished once more.

"I'm here, aren't I?" he spoke first. "Think about it, Sakura. I could have left Konoha any moment I wanted to. Do you really think the ANBU can kill me?"

He saw the look she sent him that told him not to be so cocky.

"Honestly. I've killed a Sannin they had been trying to kill for years. Escape from Konoha's confinements would have been easier. But I didn't."

He felt he was talking too much. More than he had ever spoken to Sakura.

"And the one time I do, I try to make it seem like I am not voluntarily leaving. Just think about it," he urged her quietly. "I don't want to become a missing-nin, because I want to return to Konoha."

She was disbelieving. Too good to be true, she thought. Sasuke hasn't changed, she tried to convince herself so she would no longer blush when his body pressed against hers, so she would no longer feel a twang of worry whenever he was hurt. "How do I know you just didn't want to leave because you wanted to be stronger? Because you were going to train with more help so that no one could stop you and then disappear in the middle of the night?"

Sasuke was silent for a moment, his eyes brooding.

"I don't know," he replied evenly. "I guess you're just going to have to trust me."

Sakura was equally silent before her eyes softened, but her eyebrows remained drawn and anger remained in her voice. "I'll let Naruto do the interrogating. He is always so good with people."

The two of them remained in their silence, Sasuke's arm draped across a propped leg, Sakura's hand by her waist. The Uchiha allowed his eyes to trail to the window, his eyes seeing the moon in the distance for a second before they shifted and he was staring at his reflection. He brought one hand up to his hair and twirled a strand of choppy obsidian between his fingers.

"Sakura." His eyes did not leave the reflection as he paused, weighing the question on his tongue. "Will you cut my hair for me?"

She could not help the pop of her eyebrows at the unexpected question. Sasuke was not looking at her, but he was absently running his fingers through his choppy, uneven hair. She remembered when he had cut it in his moment of insanity, and he had never fixed his hair or cared about it since then.

"Do you have a scissor?" She was agreeing indirectly. What would be the harm of simply cutting his hair? But he shook his head.

"No sharp objects."

Of course, Sakura thought. They would never trust a traitor with a weapon.

Her fingers groped for her kunai pouch as her eyes remained transfixed upon the Uchiha's pale hands. It was a relatively sharp weapon; Sasuke would not complain. The obsidian-haired boy set his eyes upon the kunai before turning away, motioning subtly for her to follow her into the bathroom fit for one person only.

"I do not wish to step all over strands of hair," was all he offered before he bent down to sit on the edge of his shower. It was just a shower – four square tiles of porcelain surrounded by a border a few centimeters high to keep the water in. Sasuke sat on the border with his back to the shower as Sakura stood to his side, kunai in hand and trying not to hit her hip against the sink.

"How do you want it?"

"Like it was before."

He didn't have to say more. Sakura took to work, pulling on the back of his hair and slicing it off deftly with the flick of her wrist.

"They couldn't have given you a smaller bathroom?" she asked nonchalantly when her waist was jabbed by the edge of the sink. She winced, rubbing the spot momentarily. Sasuke shrugged. It wasn't like he spent his every waking moment pruning himself in front of the mirror. It was an in-out procedure. In, wash face or shower, out.

They spent the rest of the process in tensioned silence. Sasuke, far too used to the darkness by that point, closed his eyes to listen to the _snip . . . snip_ of his hair. Sakura, not used to the situation at all, had her mouth parted in her concentration as she gathered a clump of Sasuke's hair between her index and middle fingers, sized it up, and snipped it off so that it fell into the shower basin. When she thought she had finished, she stood back slightly to admire her handiwork. It looked exactly as it had once been, before Sasuke had returned with his hair to his chin, or its choppy angles during the mission.

"Done," she said rather proudly, momentarily forgetting why she had been angry. She watched him carefully as he stood and inspected himself in the mirror. Sasuke did not frown, and she was satisfied.

The Uchiha shook his hair with his fingers to get rid of any excess hairs before righting himself. "Thank you," he said quickly and quietly in hopes she would not hear him before exiting the bathroom without another word and entering the kitchen. Sakura followed.

"Why the sudden need for the haircut? Finally starting to think about your looks?"

"If, by looks, you mean presentable and not attractive, then yes." He was studying the cupboards of his kitchen, eyeing the small refrigerator in its corner. "I have no intention of having the Hokage and the Elders pointlessly commenting on how I look when I ask them for missions."

Sakura's eyebrows rose in slight surprise. "Oh? You're going to try and ask them for missions?"

"I'm going to try and regain my strength."

He had pulled out his lone bag of rice by that point, knowing nothing else was there to eat; he made a mental note to buy groceries tomorrow for proper meals now that the ANBU were no longer controlling what he could eat and when he could eat it.

"I need to get stronger." He poured the rice carefully into a cup. "I'm ready to be normal again."

It was just him and her. Sakura had offered to boil the water for him. Sasuke swept her eyes over her turned back momentarily. Tonight was the longest he had ever spoken to Sakura consecutively. The two of them had never exchanged so many words without some sort of intermission or interruption. Ironically, she was angry at him tonight.

His train of thought pulled onto a new set of tracks as he began thinking what it would be like if he could actually fall in love with her.

He knew he couldn't. It was all very hypothetical to him; Uchiha Sasuke was not meant to match with Haruno Sakura – it just was not possible. He could not keep a relationship. He could not show affection in the way Naruto could, or in the way any other male could. He was bent on revenge and hatred was all he knew how to portray, not _love_. _Love_ was a foreign concept that hovered with his distant memories of his mothers. _Love_ had not been in his life since he was eight years old. Therefore, Uchiha Sasuke did not _love_.

When the rice was beginning to boil, Sakura stood by the door.

"I'm going to find Naruto," she said. "He disappeared for a bit, and I'm pretty sure he'd want to talk to you."

_Take your time_, he wanted to tell her as he nodded his head in acknowledgement. He knew Naruto was going to give him the lecture of a lifetime. An argument was inevitable. A physical fight was possible. Sasuke would have to make sure he ate two bowls of rice just to be ready.

Naruto arrived when Sasuke was spooning the fresh rice from the pot into his bowl. The Uchiha was just picking up his chopsticks when there was a quick rap on his door. He sighed quickly before moving out of the kitchen, bowl and chopsticks in one hand as the other swung his door open.

The blond suddenly forced the door open the rest of the way, taking Sasuke by the front of his shirt and kicking the door closed. Sasuke's bowl of rice fell to the floor with a painfully loud clatter in the silence of the apartment; his chopsticks followed closely after, and as they fell, the Uchiha closed his eyes to calm himself.

"I'm guessing you wouldn't like to stay for dinner," he spat sardonically.

Naruto pushed him up against a wall. Sasuke looked down, expecting to see sapphire eyes alight with anger. But the blue, blue orbs were filled with what looked to be desperation, blond eyebrows up in distress.

"Tell me it isn't true," came the hoarse voice. He must have been screaming or crying. Sasuke thought the latter. "Tell me you didn't leave because of Itachi, Sasuke. Tell me I can believe in you."

With each soft demand, Naruto shook Sasuke gently against the wall, his hands still fisting the front of the Uchiha's shirt. Desperate eyes searched the indifferent face for any flinch of emotion, any sign that he was right about Sasuke and that everyone else was wrong. That he could trust his best friend. That he could look up to his metaphorical brother.

Nothing.

Sasuke remained silent, his eyes betraying no emotion.

"Sasuke!" And Naruto shook him harder. "Sasuke, please, just let me know I'm right."

"You're wrong, Naruto."

The Uchiha was surprised at the inhuman strength the blond wielded. He felt his body move away from the wall he had been pressed up against, but his back suddenly slammed into another wall. His teeth gritted against the flare of pain.

"What the _hell_, Sasuke? Don't lie to me!"

"Naruto." He tried to move the blond's hands; he didn't like being in the weaker position. "You don't understand."

Two shakes. "Then _make_ me understand why you would just _leave_ like that after –"

"I can't just _make_ you understand why I need to get revenge on my brother!" Now Sasuke was angry. He understood Naruto's want to understand him, but he hated – he absolutely _despised_ – when people thought they could just understand another's feelings perfectly without having experienced what they had firsthand.

"No, it's –"

"Let me kill _each_ and _every_ single one of your loved ones, Naruto! Let me do that, and then you can come back and cry to me and maybe, just _maybe_ you'll understand me!"

"Fine! So what if I don't understand! Just because I can't understand what you're going through doesn't mean I can't help you, Sasuke. Stop trying to just get up and leave without consulting anyone first! You're not on your own all the time just because your blood relatives are all dead! You can have family that isn't related by blood, too, and you know it! But you just don't want to admit it!"

Silence. Sasuke didn't want Naruto to know he was right.

"Damn it, Sasuke . . .!"

He watched Naruto's finger uncurl from their fists, felt himself slide down the wall of the apartment until his feet touched the ground. Watched Naruto's shoulders shake from the strength it took him to keep a calm countenance, to keep him from crying.

"Why do you insist on leaving everything you have behind for revenge?"

"I _have_ nothing."

Naruto glared at him. "If you're too blind to see the things you have here, and the people who care about you, then leave. Go. I won't stop you." His hands clenched into fists again. "I don't care." He grabbed Sasuke by the front of his shirt again, only to shove the Uchiha away. "Don't come back until you've killed Itachi, because as long as your brother is alive, you'll never care about anyone else. Your brother is the one who's killing your ties with your friends. He's the one who's driving your hatred, and he knows it, but you're too blind to see it. So as long as he's alive, you'll always be blind."

And even at that moment, Sasuke was too blind to realize Naruto was right.

Kakashi could not win because Itachi was alive. Naruto could not win because Itachi was alive. All the arguments with Kakashi had been about Itachi. Sasuke running away, hurting people, his drive to become an avenger – Itachi. Screaming at Neji in the forest just hours ago, anger coursing through his veins (_"You've changed.") _– Itachi. Everything –

- Itachi.

And the blond was turning to leave, and Sasuke was trying to tell him it was all lies, all lies, all lies, but his pride swelled so that his throat closed and his tongue could not and would not move and Naruto was leaving, leaving, but Sasuke was grabbing his hand and trying to tell him not to go because he wasn't blind, not anymore, but that damn pride pride pride –

"Naruto."

He paused for a moment, his hand still bruising Naruto's wrist. What could he tell the blond that wouldn't hurt him? Yes, I acknowledge your existence. No, you're not just a face in the crowd to me. But sorry, I have to leave anyway because my brother killed my family and that's all I could think about, dream about, wake up in a cold sweat about for years?

The Uchiha considered two things in that split second. He could be his typical self, crack a smirk, hide what he wanted to say, and tell Naruto not to let the door hit him on the way out; Naruto was better off without him causing trouble. Kakashi was better off without him causing frustrations. Sakura was better off without him causing confusion.

Konoha was better off without him, period.

Or he could tell Naruto everything he felt inside, that he hated seeing Naruto cry; he hated knowing _he_ was the one who made the epitome of innocence shed such tears. Hated it like he hated Itachi. But he couldn't, he just couldn't forget about what happened.

But he couldn't do either, so he loosened his hand around Naruto's wrist and pulled the blond from the apartment, closing the door behind him.

"I have to leave, Naruto," he whispered as he led the broken blond through the silence of the night. He felt some odd twinge inside of him. "I have to."

And this time, he was going to leave with permission.

* * *

"How dare you even ask such a thing?"

"I was asking the Hokage."

"Tsunade, the absurdity –"

"Please."

She silenced everyone with the rise of her hand. Her honeyed eyes observed the boy – man? – in front of her before they rested on the blond that had won her heart years ago.

"Uchiha Itachi is a member of Akatsuki," she began to list off. "He puts Konoha in danger. He has slaughtered the Uchiha clan. As a missing-nin, he is sentenced to death." Her eyes quickly shifted to Sasuke once more. "And you have requested a mission to kill him?"

Sasuke met her eyes unwaveringly. "That is correct."

He had taken Naruto to the Hokage, explaining his intentions: why should he run away from Konoha again, when he could simply ask the Hokage to turn his revenge into a mission? It would be simple: an S-ranked mission to kill Konoha's most dangerous missing-nin. He had killed one already, making him already capable of the job.

The Elders were not as quick to agree after they had been summoned for the decision. Their eyes narrowed and sweat began to form at their hairlines from the power of their secrets.

Tsunade was putting more thought into the decision than she normally did. Here was Sasuke, obviously grown in mind, asking her to go on a mission instead of running away. If she told him no, Sasuke would simply run away again, and Naruto would be devastated. If she told him yes, there was no guarantee he would return.

"I would need to speak with Kakashi when he returns from his mission. I would also need to receive those mission reports of yours so that I can review your behavior."

"I can have mine written by tonight," Naruto quickly interjected.

He was proud of Sasuke's odd decision to make his revenge a mission. It ensured he didn't want to betray Konoha, to betray his family. It told him that Sasuke cared somewhere inside. A smile crept its way to his lips. The Elders kept quiet in the background, their hands tied.

"Uchiha Sasuke." Tsunade stood, her hands splayed out on her desk. She met onyx eyes filled with intensity. "If the overall behavior as described in the mission reports is positive, I will allow you to undertake a mission for the assassination of Uchiha Itachi."

* * *

**VERY IMPORTANT: HOW MANY OF YOU ARE UP TO DATE WITH THE MANGA? Please reply in a review or go to my profile where I have set up a poll, because your responses may change the amount of detail I put into the ending chapter.**


	14. Congruous

**Edit 3 - 9 - 12  
**A lot of you were unhappy with the epilogue. And by a lot, I mean a majority. I've been getting reviews ever since I finished this puppy about how the epilogue was so anti-climatic.

So I got to thinking one day after me most recent reviewer. I thought about how much I loved Team 7, how much I wanted to get them back together, how much I wanted Sasuke to just come home.

And then I re-read my epilogue. And I slapped myself in the face a couple of times because _what the fuck was I thinking_ putting that thing there?

So I decided to remove the epilogue and tweak a few things. You now get an open ending and I won't dwell on it anymore. Now, I think I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Enjoy (or don't!).

**Chapter Fourteen**  
…**:::Congruous:::…**

He was packing what little things he had; one t-shirt, one pair of pants, his toothbrush, and a wallet. Pack light, he thought. So he can run swiftly and skillfully with nothing to weigh him down. His eyes swept over his barren room with no remorse for leaving its cold and creaking floorboards. He would never have to set foot in the apartment that held so many memories he wanted to forget.

He was setting off on his mission.

The mission reports had been handed in and reviewed. Kakashi had given his full permission and support. Naruto had pleaded with Tsunade. The Elders, with their secrets and their shifty stares, had been ignored. And Sai had, to everyone's surprise, expressed his full confidence in the Uchiha. So Tsunade, her hands together in front of her face, her eyes threatening disobedience, granted the Uchiha the mission. Sasuke did not hesitate to begin packing.

Sai had been in to see him earlier. The belly-baring boy had sauntered through his front door, leaned against his kitchen counter, and spoken.

"I'm still not a fan," he had said, eyes narrowed. "But from what I've read from the mission reports, you've done some redeemable things."

"I don't care about your opinions," Sasuke had snapped moodily.

"I don't care that you don't care," Sai had said right back, unmoving. "But you let me in –"

"- You let yourself in –"

"And I'm going to speak. Naruto and Sakura care a lot about you. Kakashi cares a lot about you, too. You're the original Team 7, and I'm just a replacement." His eyes narrowed, emotionless expression tinged subtly with ominous anger. "You've cause them a lot of pain, even though it's obvious you care. One negative comment from me, and you wouldn't be packing right now, but I spoke up for you because I think if you finally complete this stupid vengeance of yours, you'll have a clear head to start realizing what you do to your friends."

Sasuke glared at him. He remained silent, though, because Sai was right – he was doing him a favor.

"But if you even _think_ about betraying Konoha again, I'll personally assign myself to your retrieval mission so I can have your head on a pike."

They fought a staring battle for a few moments before Sasuke smirked to mask his uneasiness. "You're not the emotionless drone you make yourself out to be, either. You care for them more than I do."

"I do care about them," Sai had said as he pushed himself away from the counter and to the door, "but I wouldn't dare say more than you do." He opened the door for himself. "Good luck, Uchiha."

It would take Sasuke several days after beginning his mission to finally understand what Sai meant.

Presently, Sasuke slung his bag over his shoulder and walked to the kitchen for one final meal in that house before his departure.

_KNOCK KNOCK-ITY KNOCKKNOCK!_

Or maybe not.

"Sasuke!" came the obnoxious roar from behind the barrier that separated bubbly and crazy from brooding and calm. The Uchiha opened the door anyway to let the crazy in, staring at the blond without the slightest hint of an expression on his face.

Naruto glanced at the bowl of rice in the other's hand and grimaced. "You're not seriously thinking of having your last meal in Konoha by yourself, are you?"

"I'm guessing that is no longer an option."

From the way Naruto grabbed him to pull him out of the apartment, it was not an option.

The whiskered boy eventually let go of Sasuke's wrist as they headed down the streets of the village, Sasuke willingly allowing Naruto to lead him to wherever the wind blew. Naruto spoke, like always, and Sasuke listened – like always. He hoped the blond was not aware of the fact that his black, black eyes never left his tanned face. The Uchiha watched him as he spoke, sipping in every feature – every strand of golden hair, every twitch of tanned joints, every bat of dark eyelashes of sapphire eyes – for one final time for what would be a long, long time.

Naruto finally stopped, taking Sasuke by surprise so that the Uchiha bumped lightly into him.

"Smooth," came the remark at his clumsiness, followed by a glistening grin.

They were at their training grounds.

Naruto always used the term "_their_ training grounds". It was the first place Team 7 had assembled, and continued to assemble for months after – even years after, when Sasuke left and it was just him and Sakura battling one-on-one against Kakashi, who claimed he was no longer their sensei despite never saying anything against the constant suffix to his name.

Across the field, the mentioned man was sauntering towards them, Sakura's arm looped around his so that she, too, was forced into an awkward saunter as she looked from her sensei to her teammates. Naruto did not suppress his laughter at the sight. Sasuke did.

"What a coincidence it is to see you all here, at the same place, at the same time," the silver-haired man spoke with feigned bafflement.

"You brought us here, old man," Naruto said with narrowed eyes. "You said you had a surprise?"

"Did I?" A laugh. "Ah yes, maybe I did." He was met with three identical twisted frowns and raised eyebrows. Kakashi only laughed once more before releasing Sakura's arm. "All right, all right. In honor of Sasuke's mission, and in honor of the completion of ours, I thought we'd get together for one final training session with just the four of us."

Naruto's eyes brightened with delight. "The bell test again?" he exclaimed hopefully.

His delight only inflated at the soft tinkle of the silver bells that Kakashi pulled from his pocket.

"One final bell test." Kakashi's voice became softer as he put the bells away. "Except this time, you'll take what you learned on the mission and apply it. You'll be performing this test with your most difficult disabilities. Let's see how much you've grown."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were patient in the silence that followed. Kakashi placed his hands over Naruto's ears, nostalgia beginning to wash over him in waves of memories. His hands went over Sasuke's eyes next, and he remembered the very first test they took together, when he was so sure, _so sure_ they'd fail, and now they were one team, three years later, meeting at the same field. Over Sakura's mouth went his hands before he took them away to utter, "One last time."

This time Naruto did not flinch, because he could see the compression of the dirt as he stepped, could see the rustle of the leaves as he walked, and could therefore imagine the sounds he made and the sounds he did not want to make. This time Sakura did not gasp silently, because she still had her arms, her body, her eyes for communication, could still mouth her words with newfound patience telling her to take her time and keep calm. This time Sasuke did not become frustrated, because he could hear the light breathing of his teammates and even the beating of their hearts if he listened closely, could smell the odd scents from each of them, could faintly see chakra lines if he focused enough.

This time, they were prepared.

Kakashi stood in the middle of the field, raising his headband from his Sharingan because he knew, he knew he would need to feel the swirl of the black tomoe if he ever wanted to have a chance at beating his students, even if one was blind, one was deaf, and one was mute. The bells chimed quietly from their dangled position on his belt. He watched Sasuke crouch, Naruto narrow his eyes, and Sakura curl her fists as he raised his hand and counted down.

On _go!_, he was suddenly alone.

Sasuke felt Naruto's hand on his shoulder, pulling him in one direction. The Uchiha did not resist the guidance. Together, they launched themselves into the trees where Sasuke could hear the rustle of the leaves and Naruto could see the swaying of the branches.

"Here's the plan," blond whispered to brunet.

And Kakashi was left standing on edge in the middle of the field.

Sakura felt a hand brush against her thigh and she started, whirling around so fast her hair whipped against Naruto's cheek and caused him to reel back in pain. Sapphire eyes widened in desperation, voice screaming, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it –" before a porcelain hand slapped itself over his lips and blind eyes threw daggers at his face. Sakura calmed down slightly, laughing silently before listening to the plan Naruto had created.

And Kakashi was still standing there, alone.

He was beginning to become antsy. It had been ten minutes, and he could not detect a single rustle in the trees, or a blade of grass that swayed the wrong way. Half of him wanted to propel his feet forward, into the forest to seek out his students himself. The other half of him stiffened; the ground was rumbling.

He smirked beneath his mask, uttering a whispered, "Too easy" before he jumped from the ground to grab onto the hands that usually erupted from the earth. But there were no hands. There was no one. His eyes jumped quickly to where he thought the quake had begun, but still, there was only air.

_From behind -!_

But there was no one from behind.

Or ahead.

Or above.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, baffled. He had been sure the rumble of the earth had been from Sakura's fists, or from Naruto's surprise techniques, but neither was visible. All he could see in the empty expanse of crumbled earth . . .

. . . Was Sasuke's sword.

Sasuke's _sparking_ sword.

_Clever_, thought Kakashi, eyes flitting in search of his students. _Lightning jutsus are ineffective against earth elements, but lightning can still makes its way through the cracks. They knew I'd expect Sakura or Naruto to do that._

He stepped cautiously over the broken land, his eyes finally managing to latch onto a figure in the near trees, crouched low. From the chakra, it was Sasuke. Blind Sasuke. In one swift movement, Kakashi was up in the air right behind the crouching Uchiha, leg extended and on its way to Sasuke's ribs.

_Ch-ch-chink!_

The head of spiked hair suddenly jerked to the right and Kakashi's leg was blocked by two porcelain arms.

_Ch-chink!_

Sasuke's left arm groped forward. Kakashi was surprised. His eyes widened when Sasuke's fingers grazed the bells at his belt; he curved his body just in time, hearing Sasuke's huff of determination.

_Ch-ch-chink!_

Sasuke, however, seemed unfinished. To the right went his left arm, his fingers once again grazing the bells, and Kakashi suddenly understood.

"Ingenious," he said, and Sasuke heard the smirk and admiration in the voice. "So where's Sakura? She must be close by. Those are kunai, I assume?"

"One kunai, one shuriken," Sasuke added before lunging forward blindly.

The silver-haired sensei swiftly had Sasuke on the ground beneath his foot before he felt he could safely search for Sakura. The odd _chink_ he had heard had been part of a plan – a rather intelligent one, Kakashi thought proudly. Sakura, with her eyes and sense of hearing, was Sasuke's eyes and Naruto's detection. She scraped a kunai and a shuriken against each other to "speak" a language they had created in a matter of minutes, acting like a puppet master, and Sasuke – who had deliberately waited and led Kakashi to him – was her puppet.

However, for Sasuke to hear the sounds clearly, Sakura must have been close by. Kakashi's swirling Sharingan spotted her retreating form. His foot left Sasuke's chest before the Uchiha had the chance to twist it from its socket; he was about to take after the pink-haired medic-nin when he spotted orange in the trees to his left. Naruto.

_Chink!_

"Not so fast."

And Sasuke was down again, beneath Kakashi's right foot as Naruto was ripped away from the branches and kicked against the trunk of a tree. He disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the kunai and shuriken he had been holding to clatter to the ground below.

Sakura came at Kakashi, mouth open in a silent war cry as she drove her fist forward. Kakashi ducked and avoided the punch, jumped and avoided the sweeping kick, flipped and avoided the follow-up of her bent leg. A freed Uchiha managed to land a solid kick on (Kakashi rolled his eyes) Kakashi's rear, sending the man forward in a painful stumble and allowing Sakura the opportunity to jerk Kakashi's face to the side. There was the distinct crack of Kakashi's jaw bone before the man vanished, leaving a log in his place.

"I'm suddenly very relieved that wasn't the real me," came Kakashi's voice. From his hidden position amongst the leaves, he rubbed at his cheek, feeling the hypothetical break of his own bone.

"Well, then."

And he was enveloped in a vortex of heat. Flames licked at his clothing, singing his hair, burning his skin. Fingers thrust through the tornado of flames and grappled for the bells at Kakashi's waist, but the sensei would not be deterred by a mere fire jutsu. His chakra-pumped hands pounded the earth, sending chunks of land and rocks into the air and creating an opening in the curtain of fire. He took advantage of the opening and threw his body through it.

Sasuke was there, blind eyes on Kakashi's chin and trademark smirk fully in place. "It's a good thing you were the real one," he mocked. He found himself on the floor, beneath Kakashi's foot _again_, not a second later.

"It's a good thing you're blind," the silver-haired man retorted dryly with a roll of his eyes.

Sasuke grumbled.

Kakashi was not unaware of Sakura making her way seemingly inconspicuously to where he stood atop Sasuke. He waited for her to strike, and she did, but not in the way he expected it. Her hand that aimed for his head held no chakra. Her leg that kicked for his knees held no power. Kakashi moved from Sasuke's chest as he ducked and dodged and blocked every one of Sakura's powerless strikes.

Their movement took them back to the empty expanse with the crumbled earth. Sakura finally began building chakra, but not in her fists that punched, or her legs that kicked. It built in her hips. She sprang from the ground to administer one final aerial punch, knowing Kakashi would block it with the cross of his arms to leave the rest of his body open. When her legs reached the ground again, she feigned a kick . .

. . . And shook her hip.

Her left hip connected sharply with Kakashi's waist, sending him flying back into the middle of the expanse with an earth-shattering _thud!_, pain coursing through his body and paralyzing him momentarily. His eyes were wide; he hadn't expected that. A punch, he expected. A kick, for sure. Maybe even a head butt. But one thing he had _never_ seen a ninja do, never experienced in his life, never _thought_ Sakura would perform, was a flick of her hip.

The ground began to shake once more before Kakashi had the chance to regain his movement. It quivered and it quaked, beginning to cave in upon itself with Kakashi in its midst, his head finally up and staring right at the smirking faces of Sasuke and Sakura. Arms – hundreds of them – shot up from between the cracks of the earth.

Arms wrapped in black and orange.

Naruto's arms.

"Surprise!" came the loud, jovial cry of the blond that had been absent since the beginning of the battle. He shot out from the earth along with a dozen of his clones, watching the other hundred clones beneath the ground grab onto Kakashi's body and pull him down with the collapsing land. The silver-haired man, eyes permanently wide in his surprise, was not visible beneath the dirt and hands that covered him, pinning him down so that only his masked face could be seen. Naruto pumped a fist into the air in triumph –

– A fist that brandished two tinkling little bells.

"I'd clap," Kakashi attempted to say around the hand that covered his mouth, "but my hands are a little tied at the moment."

Sasuke snorted and Naruto laughed, Sakura's hands clapping in her own silent amusement. The clones vanished and Kakashi was allowed full control of his body once more. He stood from the ground, rubbing his abused back, mirth radiating from his eyes. One hand rose to bring his headband over his Sharingan.

"Well, well." It was evident, the pride in his voice. The adoration. With a few gestures, Naruto could hear, Sakura could speak, and Sasuke could see. "That was pretty impressive."

"That was too easy!" exclaimed Naruto. "You're losing your touch in your old age, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi flicked him hard on the ear, earning a yelp of pain from the blond. "You can bury yourself underground, be kicked around like a doll, but you can't take a little flick on the ear? Tell me, how did you three come up with that plan?"

Because it was a plan that really showed off their abilities. A plan that allowed blind Sasuke to see Kakashi's movements and attack with skill. A plan that allowed mute Sakura to communicate and lead. A plan that allowed deaf Naruto to stealthily plot and strike.

Sakura smiled. "Naruto started it, at first. Sasuke and I were going to be the distractions, and Naruto was going to go in for the kill. It was his idea to break the ground so that he could sneak him and his clones into it, but he knew you'd suspect me if we broke it, and he wanted an element of surprise, so he put Sasuke up to the task."

Kakashi turned to Sasuke. "How'd you come up with that idea? Pumping lightning into the earth?"

"Experience," was all Sasuke offered, although his grimace told Kakashi it was experience gained from an unpleasant situation. He did not pry.

"But Sasuke couldn't see, and I couldn't speak," Sakura continued. "So I came up with that communication tactic. We had to divert your attention from the main field so Naruto could work, and you took the bait."

"And it helped that the breaking of the ground was loud enough to mask my movement," added Naruto.

Kakashi scratched his head playfully, eyes closing as he said, "Maybe I _am_ getting old." _Or maybe you're getting older._

"So what do we get for winning? And none of that 'the satisfaction of winning' crap!"

"You get what you always get: food."

Naruto let out a whoop of ecstasy.

". . . You're paying."

"What?"

"I haven't received my money for the mission yet, and I'm running a little low, and the rent is coming up, and –"

"Liar!"

"Idiot, you're so loud . . ."

"I'll be loud if I want to be!"

"I liked it when you were mute."

"Or when I was deaf."

"Or blind. I would not have had to see that ridiculous orange jumpsuit."

Kakashi followed his three – former? – students in silence, his eye scrunched ever-so-slightly from the sad smile his lips took on.

He hoped it wouldn't be the last time he ever saw his students together like that.

* * *

Naruto pushed Sasuke ahead, his gut filled with hot ramen and his mind buzzing with thoughts. "We'll meet you at the gates in fifteen minutes," he told Kakashi and Sakura, one hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "I want to show Sasuke something first."

There was no confused hesitation. Sakura and Kakashi turned away without questions, leaving Naruto and a very confused Sasuke.

"I do not wish to see your pigsty of an apartment, Uzumaki," Sasuke said quietly.

"Suck it up. I want to give you something before you leave."

Their walk to Naruto's apartment was in silence. Naruto relished in it, in the last moments he would have alone with his best friend, his metaphorical brother. Relished in the way the setting sun cast a pastel array of colors along the pavement as they walked. Relished in the silence of the town. Sasuke felt uneasy in it, in the last moments he would have with the closest thing to family, in the thoughts that crowded his mind with doubt and vengeance.

Up, up they walked quietly, up the zigzagging staircase that led to Naruto's ramen sticker-covered door. Naruto turned the unlocked knob ("Unlocked, idiot?" "Yeah, there's nothing worth taking but a picture frame, so why should I care?") and flicked on the lights. Sasuke scrunched his nose in disgust. He pointed to something in the nearby corner.

"That pair of pants has been there, in the exact same position, since the last time I was in this house . . . two years ago."

"No it wasn't!" Naruto protested. "You can't possibly remember something like that from three years ago. Shut up."

"And that milk carton – that's almost as old as I am, Naruto. How do you live with yourself?"

Naruto grumbled, moving into the other room. "Just shut up and follow me."

"Idiot."

"Bastard."

Sasuke watched Naruto slide out the drawer to the small table by his bed, watched him take out something that glinted with the rays of the dying sun, something that – when he brought it up to inspect it with a sad smile on his face – reflected Naruto's blue, blue eyes.

Sasuke's headband.

Its fabric tails unraveled from their neat folds when Naruto picked it up. The scratch was still there, still screaming of Sasuke's traitorous behavior and the blood of the comrades who tried to return him. Naruto turned to Sasuke and outstretched his hand.

"I believe this is yours."

Sasuke stared at it for a few moments before he finally wrapped his fingers around it to relieve Naruto of its burden.

"Are you going to keep staring at it?"

"You don't expect me to wear this, do you?" Sasuke's obsidian eyes bore into Naruto's sapphire orbs that scrunched with his grimace.

"You wouldn't want Itachi to leave a scratch on your forehead, would you?"

Their eyes battled it out in an intense staring contest. Naruto silently told Sasuke to put it on. Sasuke silently told Naruto he was insane.

Naruto won.

Sasuke brought the headband to his forehead, its cloth cold from lack of use and years of being in Naruto's drawer. He brushed away his bangs so that he could make a proper knot at the back of his head with fingers foreign to the movement. Naruto stood back to seemingly admire his handiwork.

"Sure, the scratch is there, but you can use that like some undercover disguise or something."

Sasuke observed himself from afar in the mirror in Naruto's room. He smirked.

"Now," said Naruto, "You're officially a part of Konoha again."

_Yeah_, Sasuke thought, unsure of whether to be happy or cynical about the fact. _I am a part of Konoha again._ Because the headband symbolized his loyalties. It symbolized his allegiance to the village, to the country. It gave him a home to return to and a memory to keep him going.

Naruto's slap on the back brought him from his thoughts, and the hand on his arm pulled him from the room. "Now come on. They're waiting for you. Kakashi has your stuff."

And off they went. Sasuke did not tear his eyes away from his mirror image until the mirror disappeared from his view. He frowned. The picture of Team 7 stared back at him, his unblemished headband screaming at him.

* * *

"So this is goodbye."

Team 7 stood at the gates of Konoha with Tsunade, as they had done at the start of their mission a little over a month ago. Sasuke, his headband in place (what a surprise it had been to Kakashi, who said nothing of the matter), his backpack over his shoulder, stood the furthest from the gates and turned to Kakashi, who had spoken.

"But not entirely," the silver-haired man continued. "Because you'll be back soon, with Itachi's blood on your hands and hopefully none of your own on his."

He had always been very bad at goodbyes because he rarely had to give them. Everyone who left his life had left without a goodbye; they had just been plucked from the earth, dead. So naturally, Kakashi shifted from one foot to the other, only hoping he would see Sasuke again, but doubting everything would go according to plan. Because it was Uchiha Sasuke, and there were no plans when it came to him.

Sakura smiled softly. Sadly. "I'll see you later, Sasuke," she said quietly, unsure of how to end the meeting. She knew Sasuke despised human contact, but the thought did not stop her from wrapping her arms around his stiff body for a final hug. She even imagined – _was it real? –_ the brush of his hand against her back before she pulled away, and the whispered goodbye in her ear.

"Don't forget to keep us updated with those mission reports, Uchiha." Tsunade waggled her finger in her seriousness, her honey eyes piercing. "If you miss a week, you'd better have a damn good excuse, or I'll have you make up for it with community service."

"I would not dream of it," Sasuke replied smoothly, smirking.

Kakashi clapped a hand on his shoulder in another attempt at a failure of a goodbye. He brushed off his poor attempts with the fact that it wasn't really a goodbye. Sasuke would be coming back.

Definitely.

. . . Probably.

Maybe.

"I'm hoping this won't take very long. I'm betting less than a month." He leaned closer, his voice lower, and he gave Sasuke's shoulder a squeeze. "I'm proud of you, Sasuke." And in his mind, he added, _Let's keep it that way._

Naruto emitted a bout of laughter before slapping Sasuke roughly on his back and swinging his arm around him in an awkward half-hug that left Sasuke bending slightly with a twitching eyebrow.

"I'm not saying bye," he exclaimed, "because you'll be back. And soon. So I'm going to say good luck, okay? Don't get all irrational when you see Itachi. Keep a cool head. Make sure you're eating right. Itachi's got nothing on you."

"Yes, mother," Sasuke answered sarcastically as he removed Naruto's hand from around his shoulders. He was pulled into a real hug not a moment later before Naruto pulled away. The blond stared Sasuke intensely in the eyes, seriousness etched in every line of his expression. He smiled slightly.

"Promise me you'll be back," he spoke quietly. He held out one tanned hand, waiting for Sasuke.

It took a long moment of silence and a powerful staring contest before Sasuke's hand grasped Naruto's firmly.

"I promise."

Uchiha Sasuke flashed one final smirk at his team, his family (though he would never admit it), before he turned around and left.

* * *

Danzo told (he _told_, did not _ask_, because Danzo never needed to _ask_ – he always had his way) Tsunade that he would take care of the executions of the enemies they had captured. He made his way into the putrid cellars of Konoha's underground imprisonment, walked along the walls of the cave-like structure until he stood staring through the bars at Jun. The man was huddled in a corner of the room, head down, arm over knee and surrounded by the other leaders of the infiltration plan.

Danzo opened the door. Walked in. Closed the door behind him. No one moved. He stood over them, eyes nothing but slits, hand fingering the sword at his side.

And he killed each and every single one of them.

With the fresh blood dripping from his sword, he uttered but four words as he wiped the life liquid against his robes:

"You have failed me."


End file.
